Free Republic

While lawmakers in Washington debate whether to forgive illegal immigrants their trespasses, a small but increasing number of local and state law enforcement officials are taking it upon themselves to pursue deportation cases against people who are here illegally. In more than a dozen jurisdictions, officials have invoked a little-used 1996 federal law to seek special federal training in immigration enforcement for their officers. In other places, the local authorities are flagging some illegal immigrants who are caught up in the criminal justice system, sometimes for minor offenses, and are alerting immigration officials to their illegal status so that they...

Dozens of Central Texas drivers got pulled over Thursday for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Travis County deputies kicked off what has become a controversial reward program. You know that heart stopping feeling you get when seeing the flashing red lights of law enforcement in the rear view mirror. Well, you won't see that if you're a good driver, but you may get pulled over. Getting pulled over for doing nothing wrong may not sound right to a lot of people. Travis County Deputy Derrick Taylor says his job is to not only look for bad drivers, but reward and encourage...

A driver trying to escape a what Woodbury police called a traffic stop lost control of his car and crashed into a house early this morning. Shortly after midnight the driver of a red Acura led police on a brief chase before crashing into a house

State Trooper Shot and Killed During Traffic Stop In Carnegie Pennsylvania A Pennsylvania state trooper was shot to death near Carnegie overnight. It happened around 2 this morning at the Roslyn Farms interchange on the Parkway West. Details are just coming in, but what's known is a Carnegie cop spotted a state cruiser off to the side of the highway. Inside he found a state trooper slumped over the wheel. Apparntly he was shot to death while making a traffic stop. An all points builletin is out for at least four suspects...all said to be black men who were last...

Police escort for contact lens driver 09 August 2005 By JULIE JACOBSON A motorist was asked to drive under police escort to an optometrist to prove he was wearing contact lenses. "I couldn't believe it," writer Michael Romanos said, after being pulled over by Wellington area traffic boss Senior Sergeant Richard Hocken for not wearing a seatbelt while on his way to do some shopping yesterday. A condition of his licence is that he wears either glasses or contact lenses while driving. "He asked me to prove I was wearing contacts and when I said I wasn't going to take...

Routine traffic stop nets drugs: A patrol deputy found 22 bags of powdered cocaine in a pickup truck after a routine traffic stop Friday night, a Leon County Sheriff's Office spokesman said. Michael L. Williams, 42, was charged with unlawful use of blue lights, possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana and possession of cocaine with intent to sell or distribute. He was released from the Leon County Jail on $5,300 bail. Williams was stopped near South Monroe Street and Orange Avenue when the deputy noticed Williams' truck had blue lights, which are allowed only for emergency vehicles, Chris...

I'm in a rental car with Al Franken, and we're driving across New Hampshire on the Sunday before the nation's first primary, heading to a John Edwards rally. The Democrats are in a kooky mood following the sudden collapse of Howard Dean in Iowa, and Franken -- comedian, celebrity, scourge -- is spending two days in the state not in any official capacity but as a sort of good-will representative from the party's satiric wing. He is not, as you might think from the outrageous trappings of his comedy, an extreme lefty but rather a devout party man, one who...

FORT WORTH - West side patrol officers are under new orders: Make two traffic stops a day or face a penalty that includes having days off changed or being reassigned to a different beat, shift or district. The policy, described in a memo obtained by the Star-Telegram as an active approach to decreasing serious crime in west Fort Worth, disturbs some officers to whom it sounds similar to an illegal quota. "To me, this is a thinly veiled attempt at a quota, and I don't like it," said Lee Jackson, president of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association, which represents...

Sometimes Eugene police ask people for their Social Security numbers, and sometimes they don't. The department has no specific policy regarding the collection of the nine-digit identifier, and different officers handle the issue in different ways. Spurred on by a recent surge of complaints from the community, the city's human rights and police commissions have agreed to form a joint task force to look into the issue and possibly create a written policy to govern the collection and use of the information, a move welcomed by police, acting Capt. Rick Siel said. The inconsistency has created confusion, Siel said, and...

Lt. Gov. held at gunpoint in traffic stop BY BRIAN HICKS Of The Post and Courier Staff COLUMBIA--Lieutenant governor is a job that normally gets little publicity, but South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has a chance now for some national exposure. On World's Wildest Police Chases, that is. On Tuesday, Bauer led Columbia Police on a moderate-speed chase down Assembly Street here, where he apparently was racing to gavel the Senate into order. The incident ended with a gun drawn and the lieutenant governor standing with his hands in the air on one of the city's busiest streets, just...

What started as a routine traffic stop escalated into an eight-hour standoff and a shootout with sheriff's deputies that left the 69-year-old driver dead, officials said. Vincent Zirakian, who had a history of mental illness, died Monday, apparently from shots fired by the deputies, said Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating. Zirakian was driving 20 mph under the speed limit early Monday when deputies tried to pull him over. He stopped the car briefly, but took off again, authorities said. Another deputy tracked him to his home in Deltona, about 20 miles north...