Free Republic

Sniffer dogs may have to start wearing bootees when they are used by police to search Muslim homes so that they do not cause offence, it has emerged. A recommendation initially drawn up to cover police searches of mosques where dogs are fitted with leather bootees is now said to have been extended to Muslim homes. Under proposals from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the bootees would be used when the occupants objected to the search on religious grounds. Dogs' saliva is considered to be unclean or impure in Islamic teaching and it is forbidden to keep the...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY — The No. 1 man glances back, ensuring his comrades are in tow. They’re about to search a building known to house insurgents. But where are they, exactly? The team leader signals. They rush in to clear a room. Gunfire! The “up” signal is given. An Iraqi man calmly walks through the door. He says, “Good, now do it again.” Leaders of the 3rd battalion, 8th brigade, 2nd national police division conducted their fourth non-commissioned officer training academy at Forward Operating Base Volunteer in Baghdad last month. Leaders trained shurta - Iraqi policemen - from 3rd...

ERMA — Lower Township Police Chief Edward Donohue announced that the Department of Homeland Security will provide the Lower Township police with a Real Time Video Surveillance System through the U.S. Army’s Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program, or CEDAP. Donohue stated that the police department applied to the Army’s CEDAP Program last year for the system. The system consists of several cameras that can feedback live video to police headquarters or vehicles from several miles away. Donohue states the system will be utilized for police surveillance operations, tactical operations, and to monitor critical infrastructure as needed. For security reasons, Donohue...

SANTA ANA A 22-year-old man is in custody after police said he and another man unwittingly tried to carjack an unmarked police car with two uniformed officers inside. At 9:30 p.m. Thursday, the officers were investigating illegal fireworks activity in the 2200 block of Eastwood Avenue when a sports utility vehicle pulled up in front of their unmarked police sedan, said Santa Ana Police Department Comm. Steve Colon. The two men got out of the SUV and took "an aggressive approach toward the officers," Colon said. The driver acted as if he had a weapon in his waistband, police said....

A look at the development of the Iraqi security forces. Two provinces have transfered to Iraqi control.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 2, 2008 – Absenteeism, corruption, low pay, lack of equipment and weapons, and a high casualty rate are just some reasons policemen show up at the Jalalabad Regional Training Center in Afghanistan. The goal for them is to avoid these situations. An Afghan police instructor shows a police trainee how to properly turn and arm himself at the Jalabad Regional Training Center, one of seven RTCs located throughout Afghanistan. The eight-week training gives the police the basics of police operations to include proper arrest procedures, human rights, Afghan laws, and corruption issues. More than 52,000 police...

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2008 – Lasting security in Iraq is one of the top challenges facing those in the country and one of the benchmarks for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region, a senior military officer said today. One way to attain lasting security is through a well-trained and professional police force, Army Maj. Gen. Jerry Cannon of the Michigan National Guard’s 46th Military Police Command, said in a teleconference with online journalists and bloggers today. Deployed to Iraq and assigned as the director general for the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, Cannon oversees all aspects of training...

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 1, 2008 – The first class of the Afghan National Police’s “Jump Start” program graduated at the Central Training Center here June 26. A graduate of Jump Start raises his graduation certificate as he is applauded by his classmates. Jump Start is an eight-week course that qualifies Afghan recruits as police officers. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Shawn Graham  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 229 men and four women in the class were trained by instructors from DynCorp International, a private military contracting company. Jump Start is a police training program...

Five policemen were stabbed to death in Shanghai today after a man set fire to their station before charging in with a knife in a frenzied attack. Government officials said the man, a 28-year-old from Beijing named only as Yang, was "quickly overpowered" and arrested. Police said the attacker confessed he had wanted revenge after police arrested him last year on suspicion of stealing bicycles. "He was unhappy ... In order to take revenge, he decided to commit criminal actions," a statement said. "He broke into the building, attacking policemen who were at work."According to the statement, the man set...

“Javier Francisco Ovando, who was awarded a $15-million settlement in the wake of the LAPD Rampart scandal in the 1990s, is arrested after leading police on a chase from Glendale to South San Gabriel.”

You may have heard about the Triple-killing on the Streets of San Francisco by a gang member(s) purported to belong to the infamous Salvadorian gang, known as MS-13. “A suspected gang member accused of killing a father and two sons escaped prosecution in a weapons case earlier this year when the San Francisco district attorney's office concluded it didn't have enough evidence to connect him to a gun that a passenger in his car was carrying…” Read report by Jaxon Van Derbeken of the San Francisco Chronicle, at link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/26/BAV711FM4F.DTL This same MS-13 gang member, Edwin Ramos, had been picked...

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, June 30, 2008 – A Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team program here trains Afghan men to become part of the Afghan National Auxiliary Police force. (Left to right) Navy Petty Officers 2nd Class Jovener R. Mironchik and Elizabeth M. Luna, along with Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos A. Ramirez and Seaman Brian L. Boyd Jr., gather with Afghan National Auxiliary Police officers before a graduation ceremony at the Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team’s training facility near Asadabad, Afghanistan. U.S. Navy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The three-week Police Training and Advisory Team program was conducted...

Some of the newest police officers in East St. Louis, Ill., have criminal records, and one of them took his oath having an outstanding warrant, officials said.

YONKERS (WABC) -

Jerry Lee Williams Jr. was, authorities say, the most sinister kind of rapist: He would rape and choke, rape and choke, and sometimes he would rape and kill. All told, there were six victims... Two are dead. And the state couldn't stop him, even after the Florida Department of Corrections forced him to wear an ankle monitor so it could keep tabs on him by satellite, the agency says. While wearing the ankle band after his release from prison, Williams attacked two women -- killing one... Both times, the satellite worked. It tracked his every move. But there was no...

The couple's quarrels reached a crisis in 1994, when the wife pried open a bedroom door with a kitchen knife, slashed the sheets and lunged with the blade toward her husband . . . The marriage did not improve. In the 2003 affidavit, the husband testified he was afraid of his wife and had only stayed in the relationship “for the sake of the kids,” their two teenage sons. . . . But about 4:45 a.m. Monday, police said, Glen Denson ambushed his wife, Sharon Denson, at the North Side home of her boyfriend, shot them both and set them...

Troy Molde awoke at 3 a.m. Thursday to police flashlights shining in his face. Two uniformed Lakeville officers were in his bedroom, knocking on the wall to wake him up. They were there, they said, to warn him to keep his doors closed and locked. Their surprise visit was part of a public service campaign. Officers had fanned out across the city, leaving notices on doors to remind residents how to prevent thefts by keeping garage doors closed, not leaving valuables in cars and locking windows or doors. But at Molde's house, they went further. His two sons, ages 5...

A police force spent £100,000 on a failed attempt to find protective headgear that fits over Sikh officers' turbans. West Midlands Police started its search after one Sikh constable decided he wanted to join the counter-terrorist Operational Support Unit. The man, thought to be in his mid-20s, was refused a place because he was unable to fit the necessary helmet and respirator over his turban and beard, both of which are requirements for strict adherents to his faith. According to a police source, the unnamed constable claimed he was being discriminated against and was then assigned the task - while...

On Father's Day last Sunday afternoon, a Chilmark police officer pumped several bullets into a wild male turkey he feared was a threat to public safety. Chilmark patrolman Jeff Day and Special Police Officer Matthew Gebo responded to a call at 12:26 pm from two people who said the bird attacked them as they tried to deliver rental baby equipment. The turkey, however, happened to be "Tom," a bird familiar to next-door neighbors Jonathan Haar and his wife, Linda, who had been feeding him since he was an orphaned chick. According to a police report, Mr. Haar's protest over the...

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...

ROCHESTER, MN (KTTC-TV) -- A local business that is clashing with Police could lead to a liquor license lost. They have a long list of police calls and a self-admitted problem with gang violence. Now, the future of Westfire Grille, is very close to burning out. For the second time in the last month the Rochester City Council is finding the future of a bar in their hands, but this time around it's not about neighbors. The problem is with the police. Rochester Police Lt. Dan Pulford says, "1 o'clock in the morning, 2 o'clock in the morning, I will...

When the emergency room staff at Northfield City Hospital thought an obviously disturbed patient was about to turn violent, they did what many hospitals do in that situation: They called the police...

Awakened before dawn by police officers who battered down the door to his home, Basil Parasiris said he acted in self-defence when he shot at a stranger at his bedroom door. A jury agreed yesterday, acquitting the Montreal-area businessman of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Constable Daniel Tessier, a father of two. The verdict was the latest slap in this case for the Laval police. The trial had revealed that the force's search warrant relied on dubious evidence and didn't allow a night-time raid; that officers didn't properly check whether Mr. Parasiris owned guns; and that they fired...

A police project that involved spending £100,000 helping a Sikh officer find a chemical and biological attack suit to fit over his turban and beard has been described as "ridiculous". The junior officer, who has not been named, encountered problems trying to join West Midlands Police's counter-terrorist operation support unit because he could not fit protective gear over his religious headwear and beard. Police chiefs decided to let him spend 18 months trying to find new respirators and helmets suitable for Sikhs. But after failing to come up with an alternative he was restored to his regular role – only...

SNIP . . on June 8, 2008 at approximately 0003 hours the Ketchikan Police Department received multiple 911 calls of a patrol vehicle, which had crashed by the Stedman Street Bridge and was now in the water in Thomas Basin. SNIP. . . .Sgt. Townsend regained consciousness after the vehicle came to a stop and started sinking. He was unable to open the door or window of his patrol vehicle and fired one round of his service weapon to break out the glass in the driver's door.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 13, 2008 – Surrounded by Afghan National Police, the U.S. Army staff sergeant moved the water-bottle caps around in the dirt, as if on a checkerboard. But, there was no board, and this was no game. It was training. Army Staff Sgt. James Parks, Afghan National Police mentor, uses water bottle caps to demonstrate a wedge formation, a type of patrolling technique, at the Regional Training Center in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Parks is one of six coalition mentors at the RTC who train the police on basic combat skills. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Beth...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 12, 2008 – Police mentor team “Patriot” visits its assigned Afghan National Police stations daily. The mentors tend to ask the same questions about pay, personnel, weapons and equipment. They coach the police to solve any problems on the spot, paving the way to an Afghan solution. Army Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Judson (right) and Army Sgt. 1st Class Sean Sanders, both Afghan National Police mentors, stand near improvised explosive devices discovered by ANP officers in a district of Kandahar City, Afghanistan. The police discovered the IEDs and turned them over to the mentor team for...

Easton, MD--For only the third time in five years, Easton police have ticketed someone for going topless in public. Sean Cephus, 18, was cited June 4 when police say he was spotted without a shirt on South Street near Hanson Street. He was also cited for failing to obey a lawful order to stop for police. A town ordinance adopted in 1974 forbids anyone from going topless in public buildings or on public streets and sidewalks. Possible penalties are a fine of up to $100 and up to 10 days in jail Easton Police Lt. Gregory Wright said people without...

While Seattle worries about concealed weapons, a new fad in the West is to pack and carry you pistol for all to see...

A life-size replica of a Vancouver traffic cop pointing a radar gun at oncoming traffic was unveiled Thursday on city streets. The police force has up to eight replica cops that initially will be deployed on Knight Street to try to reduce speeding and traffic fatalities. "There may or may not be a police officer behind one of these cut-outs," Vancouver police traffic Staff Sgt. Ralph Pauw said at a news conference. GUESS WHICH OFFICER IS REAL: It's the one on the left, shown with his replica partner Thursday on Knight Street. Police can deploy eight replica cops on the...

Three months after the local police inspected more than a dozen businesses searching for illegal immigrants using stolen Social Security numbers, this community in the Florida Panhandle has become more law-abiding, emptier and whiter. Many of the Hispanic immigrants who came in 2004 to help rebuild after Hurricane Ivan have either fled or gone into hiding. Churches with services in Spanish are half-empty. Businesses are struggling to find workers. And for Hispanic citizens with roots here — the foremen and entrepreneurs who received visits from the police — the losses are especially profound. “It was very hard because the community...

BAGHDAD — Baghdad Police College broke ground for a new campus to be known as Baghdad Police College East June 5. When completed next year, the new facility will have 19 buildings for training and housing Iraqi Police. The new $35 million facility will accommodate 2,000 recruits and 200 instructor staff. There will be nine student barracks, four instructor barracks, one laundry and one dining facility, two large classroom buildings, one multi-purpose facility and one administration building. The facility will be constructed on the former polo field of Baghdad Police College, adjacent to the present campus. The new BPC East...

WASHINGTON, June 6, 2008 – The Marine battalion tasked with training Afghan police members focuses more on helping Afghan people prosper than on defeating the Taliban, a military official involved in the training effort said today. The mission of the 1st Marine Division’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, is to train and mentor the Afghan National Police, which they consider “the center of gravity,” Marine Corps Lt. Col. Richard D. Hall, the battalion’s commander, said in a conference call with veterans service organization representatives. “[The police trainers] are not so much just wanting to go out there and get rid...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, June 6, 2008 – Deployed Idaho National Guardsmen working as a police mentoring team travel throughout Afghanistan’s Parwan province to train and advise the Afghan National Police. An Afghan National Police officer checks a vehicle’s undercarriage during a vehicle-search class at the Parwan province’s police headquarters in the Charikar district, June 3, 2008. The class is given as part of ongoing training the ANP receive from a team of Idaho National Guardsmen. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jessica R. Dahlberg, 382nd Public Affairs Detachment  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. As part of the training,...

The Illinois State Police are using vans with cameras and radar guns to photograph motorists and other drivers who speed through highway construction zones, and are enforcing strict penalties for alleged offenders. Citations for a first offense are $375, and a second offense can cost $1,000 and a 90-day suspension of driver’s license. State Police officials said four white vans, which are equipped with radar guns, cameras and a monitor to show drivers their speed, have been deployed at different construction zones in the state. As of Thursday, June 5, those vans are deployed at the widening project on the...

PHOENIX -- Two men opened fire on a marked patrol car Tuesday night, Phoenix police said. Police said the men fired at the two-man patrol car from a maroon Chevrolet Tahoe around 10:40 p.m. in west Phoenix. The officers followed the Tahoe about 5 miles before the men stopped the SUV and fled on foot into an apartment complex, police said. Officers set up a perimeter in the area and used K-9 units to search for the men. Police said both men were taken into custody, though one was bitten by a police dog. The men initally gave police false...

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. The head of the city's Police Commission said today that the panel was likely to take disciplinary action against Fong, which could range from a letter of reprimand to something more severe. Department rules require all police officers who carry guns to pass shooting range tests every six months. Fong said in a statement this week that...

MOSUL, Iraq, June 3, 2008 – The residents of Yarimjah, a neighborhood in southern Mosul, were apprehensive when Iraqi National Police officers arrived at 4 a.m. May 24. They had heard many rumors about the national police from neighbors and television. Iraqi National Police Col. Fasial Majed Muhsen listens to concerns of a villager during security operations in Yarimjah, Iraq. Iraqi National Police photo by Lt. Col. Mohammed  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. What the neighborhood residents experienced was unexpected. The 2nd Battalion, 6th National Police Brigade, under the command of Col. Fasial Majed Muhsen, moved into the...

Medical experts are urging Spain's government to revise the list of reasons for exclusion from the Civil Guard police force, which for men include having a high-pitched voice or just one testicle, a newspaper said Tuesday. Candidates who suffer from psoriasis, stuttering, diabetes, migraine or sexually transmitted diseases can also be rejected, according to the requirements for joining the paramilitary force, El Pais said. "It is possible to reject a candidate with a benign tumour, a scar or a deformity that affects his looks," said El Pais. "Lacking genitals or speaking with a high voice can also be an insurmountable...

So far this year, the Iraqi police force has lost about 10,000 officers. Some 80 percent of those were people fired for corruption or incompetence. The rest were combat casualties, as the police are heavily involved in operations against the Shia Mahdi Army militia, and al Qaeda. Some 90 percent of the losses are from the anti-militia operations. That's because many police units had been infiltrated by Mahdi Army members (who joined for the paycheck, and to support the Mahdi Army as opportunities presented themselves.) The Mahdi Army also had the support of a large block of parliament members, as...

NUTLEY - A woman is speaking out against the Nutley Police Department, claiming the people paid to protect have been victimizing her instead.   Donna Koeppel says she's still haunted by memories of being brutalized by two Nutley officers last year. According to Koeppel's story, she called the authorities after several men began removing paving blocks from her backyard, tearing up the lawn. The men told her they were under orders by her neighbor, a Newark cop she has had a long running feud with. Koeppel claims two officers arrived and handcuffed her. When she asked why she was being arrested,...

Two Christians claim a police community support officer told them to stop leafleting in an area of east Birmingham where many Muslims live. The Christian Institute has complained to West Midlands Police the men were told to leave Alum Rock Road. The US Christians said they were advised they were committing a hate crime by trying to convert Muslims. West Midlands Police has investigated the complaint and said the officer intervened to defuse a row. Arthur Cunningham and Joseph Abraham, a pastor at Grace Bible Fellowship Church, in Saltley, Birmingham, had been distributing leaflets in nearby Alum Rock on 19...

I have only listened to the first 30 minutes, but this seems to be right on target. I will be interested in seeing FReeper comments.

The most common knife used in teenage stabbings is taken from the kitchen, Sir Ian Blair has said. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner unveiled some of the deadly weapons seized during a two-week blitz on knife-carrying criminals at New Scotland Yard. Sir Ian revealed that the majority of those weapons discovered on the streets of the capital were ordinary domestic knives. He said more than 4,000 operations have been undertaken by his officers using arch metal detectors and handheld scanners. As a result, more than 200 people have been arrested and almost 200 weapons have been seized. Speaking hours after this...

BRUSSELS, May 28 (Reuters) - NATO troops should not be left to shoulder police tasks in Kosovo, the U.S.-led alliance said on Wednesday as signs grew that a European Union plan to take over police duties there faced months of delay. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian government asked the EU to take over policing from the United Nations when it declared independence from Serbia in February, but Serb ally Russia has so far blocked any formal handover.

Families will be forced to name somebody to be in charge of their rubbish under a council's 'zero tolerance' approach to bin collections. The named individual faces £100 fines and a criminal record if their household then puts the wrong rubbish in its wheelie bins, puts them out too soon, or puts them in the wrong place. They will also be told to give officials a breakdown of everyone who lives in their home, together with intimate information including details of medical conditions. The strict questionnaire that residents will be forced to fill out about their rubbish They will even...

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2008 – When Army Col. Thomas J. McGrath arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan, last year as the commander of the Afghan Regional Security Integration Command, he stopped in on a police checkpoint. Of the 25 Afghan police manning the point, only one had a police shirt on, only one had a weapon, and they all were high on hashish, the colonel said today in a conference call with members of veteran service organizations. “They were totally disorganized, but that was your police department,” McGrath said. “It was pretty scary to think about what wasn’t there.” Now, the same...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- In another nod to the Washington Constitution's broad privacy protections, the state Supreme Court has thrown out the drug conviction of a man who was searched by police solely because of his weird behavior. Thursday's unanimous decision reinforces the rules for simple pat-downs under state law, which offers stronger safeguards against police searches than the U.S. Constitution. Without a search warrant or probable cause to make an arrest, police in Washington may frisk someone for weapons only if an officer has reason to believe the person is armed and dangerous. The court said those rules weren't followed...

NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, May 23, 2008 – Afghan border police officers learned advanced small-arms repair and maintenance skills from U.S. soldiers of Company B, 173rd Support Battalion, at Forward Operating Base Fenty in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, May 1-8. Army Spc. Roberto Garza Rivera, a small-arms repairman with Company B, 173rd Brigade Support Battalion, supervises Staff Sgt. Ghaljay, an Afghan Border Patrol officer, during reassembly of an M-249 squad automatic weapon May 5, 2008, at Jalalabad Airfield, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Gregory J. Argentieri, 173rd Airborne Brigade  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The U.S. Advanced Instructed Small-Arms Repair...

Another state police veteran commits suicideAssociated Press 05/23/2008 ALBANY - A state police forensic scientist was found dead at his home Friday, the second apparent suicide of a state police veteran in just more than a week, according to a state government official. The scientist's name wasn't released. The official confirmed the report on condition of anonymity because the death hasn't been announced by authorities. On Tuesday, the former head of Gov. George Pataki's security detail was buried in Orange County. Retired Inspector Gary Berwick was found dead at his home May 15. The deaths have come as officials investigate...