Quorum National and International News clippings & press releases

Providing members with information on policing from across Canada & around the world

18 January 2013

Canadian Association of Police Boards 157 Gilmour Street, Suite 302 Ottawa, Ontario K2P 0N8 Tel: 613|235|2272 Fax: 613|235|2275 www.capb.ca

BRITISH COLUMBIA ...... 4 Burkart new Nelson Police Department inspector ...... 4 UBCM Urges Federal Government to Pay for RCMP Severance Package ...... 5 Chief makes plea for regional police force ...... 6 VPD, RCMP dogs bite far more often than counterparts: probe ...... 7 ALBERTA ...... 9 Province cuts $10-million cheque for Fort Macleod over cancelled police college ...... 9 Government outlines plans for supporting 911 operators ...... 10 Chronic Edmonton police department problems outlined in report ...... 11 Former Calgary police officer faces more child porn charges ...... 14 SASKATCHEWAN ...... 14 Police chief calls for action, funding after death in cell ...... 14 Protesting peacefully legal, Regina Police Service explains ...... 16 Estevan Police Service receives government funding ...... 17 MANITOBA ...... 19 Province To Build New Jail In Dauphin ...... 19 ONTARIO ...... 20 Windsor police, city head to arbitration Saturday ...... 20 Elgin OPP bucking provincial trends ...... 21 New contracts as police, board reach deal ...... 22 Port Hope police name acting second-in-command ...... 24 Opinion: Government has allowed police to operate in vacuum of accountability with aboriginal protesters ...... 25 Ottawa police officer demoted for conduct that was ‘a humiliation to his profession’ ..... 27 Officer gets absolute discharge in theft case ...... 31 Ottawa has lowest impaired driving rate in Canada: StatsCan ...... 33 City cop charged with breach ...... 35 Police budget increases by 2.9% ...... 35 Could a Windsor-Essex regional police force lower costs? ...... 37 Sudbury police probe allegation against Thunder Bay officer ...... 39 Police, psychiatrist improve response to mental health calls ...... 40 Mayor admits failure in keeping Thunder Bay safe ...... 42 QUEBEC ...... 44 Quebec pleased as Supreme Court ruling bolsters drunk-driving laws ...... 44 Montreal police form integrity squad to root out corruption ...... 46 Quebec to crack down on repeat impaired driving offenders ...... 47 NEW BRUNSWICK ...... 48 Saint John can’t use bylaws for prostitution crackdown ...... 48 AIDS Saint John official says Coun. Susan Fullerton's proposal was misguided ...... 49 NOVA SCOTIA ...... 50 Police chief to urge integration at national summit ...... 50 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND ...... 51 Police officer guilty of refusing breathalyzer ...... 51 NEWFOUNDLAND ...... 53 NATIONAL ...... 53 Canadian police, military honoured for bravery in aftermath of Haiti earthquake ...... 53 Canada's police forces have to innovate or cut back, Toews tells summit ...... 55 Supreme Court stays case against an abused wife who tried to hire a hit man ...... 57

2 Policing officials meet to discuss the future of policing in Canada ...... 59 Toews pleased with RCMP gender action plan but offers few details ...... 60 RCMP failed to track internal misconduct for years ...... 61 The exploding cost of policing in Canada ...... 64 INTERNATIONAL NEWS ...... 67 City right to merge fire, police ...... 67 Minneapolis, Milwaukee mayors hold gun summit ...... 68 Mexico’s Gun Problems Go Beyond Drug Wars ...... 70 Louisiana: New Orleans Rethinks Deal on Police ...... 72 Biden, NRA Clash Over New Control Proposals ...... 72 Former Department Of Homeland Security Office Of Inspector General Agent Admits Role In Records Falsification Scheme ...... 75 Anaheim to Develop Proposal for Greater Oversight of Police ...... 76 Policing and Mental Health Experts Meet to Develop Prevention Model for Mental Health-Related Gun Violence ...... 78 Police review tactics amid rioting ...... 80 Guidance, Not Guns; Counselors, Not Cops ...... 81 Studying Crime: The Next Steps ...... 83 Pennsylvania: Police Accused of Retaliatory Arrests ...... 87 An Added Mission for Arizona Sheriff’s Immigration Posse: School Patrols ...... 88 EDITORIAL Gun Reform for a Generation ...... 90 'Code Of Ethics' On Cards ...... 92 College Of Policing: Clarity Needed On Governance ...... 93 Obama looks to fund study into link between gun violence, video games and 'media' ... 95 Ex-East Haven Cop's Sentencing Delayed After Emotional Testimony ...... 97 29 Belfast police injured while separating Catholic, Protestant crowds in sectarian flashpoint ...... 99 Six NOPD captains win round in fight over being passed over ...... 101

3 BRITISH COLUMBIA

Burkart new Nelson Police Department inspector By Kirsten Hildebrand - Nelson Star Published: January 10, 2013 4:00 PM

The endorsement only makes sense considering Burkart had been “hand-picked” for the Nelson detachment in August, 2000, says Chief Wayne Holland who’s been observing the officer since arriving himself two years ago.

“They had great expectations of him,” says Holland. “He’s most deserving of this promotion.”

With a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology from Carleton University in Ottawa and a Masters degree in Industrial Relations, Burkart also has 18 years on the job as a police officer. He came to Nelson from the Calgary Police Service where he was for more than five years.

“We were fortunate enough to scoop him up,” says Holland. “He came with amazing credentials.”

Since arriving in the Queen City, Burkart has embraced the community giving of his time outside work hours as a volunteer DARE instructor and soccer coach.

“What was really notable about him is what we always insist on when we’re recruiting people in. He’s someone who’s willing to work in the community as a volunteer,” says Holland. “I think he’s really established himself in his years with us.”

Burkart says his philosophy on policing is something he has maintained throughout his time in Nelson.

Shortly after arriving he volunteered to be the downtown beat officer to get closer to his new community. Interacting on a personal level right from the start gave him an instant feel for what people felt was important when it comes to the safety of the place they call home.

“My philosophy would be that as a police officer I am working in the community and I want to work with the community,” he said. “I think that fits very well with Nelson and my involvement so far has shown that. I want to help make this community better.”

Because of a reorganization of the department, the rank of deputy chief constable is being retired. For the next year to year and a half, the second in command will be referred to as inspector – still officially an officer.

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“This provides a little more opportunity for that person to be out on the street with the uniforms more,” says Chief Holland.

In his new job, Burkart will do administrative work, attend committee meetings and work with the City and city council. A good portion remains operational, however, so he will help out on the road and assist supervisors.

Holland says the police board, chief and City all agree with a policy of promoting from within – especially at a smaller police force where opportunities are fewer.

“You really have to shine to get to advanced ranks,” says Holland. “Identifying and promoting from within really sends a message to the troops, from the most junior member all the way to the top, that there really is opportunity for advancement in their career.”

Burkart arrived to Nelson with a young family knowing his opportunities in a small community may be limited.

“You know coming here that you may not have the same opportunities here as you would in the bigger city or with the RCMP,” said Burkart. “I came here with a young family and that was my choice. Fortunately it has worked out pretty well for me.”

Burkart’s prospects continue to be bright.

“The person selected for this spot is being strongly considered to take my place when I get run out of town in two to three years,” says Holland in good humour.

Burkart replaces Deputy Chief Henry Paivarinta who left the department on December 21 after 28 years with the force. Paivarinta quietly enters retirement beginning in May.

“His predecessor was one of his strongest supporters,” says Holland. “Henry was very vocal about Paul being the best person that he could think of to take his place.”

UBCM Urges Federal Government to Pay for RCMP Severance Package

Jan 15, 2013

UBCM has sent a letter [PDF] to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews urging the federal government to take financial responsibility for its decision to accelerate the pay out of severance packages to members of the RCMP and other federal employees.

5 We have asked the Federal government to commit to the "new partnership" in the 2012 RCMP agreement and to undertake meaningful, ongoing and timely consultations with local government on substantive issues affecting the quality and cost of policing services. UBCM has pointed out that the relationship of contract partners is premised on a commitment to work collaboratively together toward the provision of a professional efficient and cost effective police service.

While the full impact has not yet been determined, accelerated severance payouts for RCMP members will cost local governments thousands of dollars. The decision to end severance payments to RCMP employees was made by the Federal government without local government consultation, and in the view of UBCM, local governments should not be expected to absorb the costs.

Local governments are concerned that the scope of the severance package will negate any cost saving benefits that the severance package was intended to provide. It may take the full 20-year term of the contract for local government to achieve any of the benefits from it.

Local governments recognize the need for the Federal government to move RCMP compensation toward industry standards. We feel it is important that it undertake a cost-containment strategy in the budget, however, the implementation of these measures should not be placed on the shoulders of local government.

Chief makes plea for regional police force

By Daniel Palmer - Victoria News Published: January 15, 2013 8:00 AM

Victoria’s top cop is hoping a series of public talks will drum up support for a single regional police force.

Chief Const. Jamie Graham used a James Bay Neighbourhood Association meeting to illustrate the difficulty of running a 245-member department with the highest case load per officer in Canada.

“We suffer from a core city phenomenon,” Graham told the crowd of about 40 people at the New Horizons building Jan. 9. The discussion was part of Graham’s annual offer to speak at each community association in Victoria.

The downtown population can swell to 250,000 during large events, and the roughly 400 protests that take place at the legislature and elsewhere in Victoria fall on VicPD shoulders, he added.

“A common sense examination of the patchwork quilt of police departments in this region suggests there may be a better alternative, and the people I talk to tend to agree,” Graham told the News. “But there are different views and we respect them.”

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Graham also referenced the Oppal Report, a judicial inquiry into the Robert Pickton case that cites the Lower Mainland and Capital Region as being the only two metropolitan areas in Canada with fragmented police forces.

“There’s no doubt that, should resources have been regionalized, (Pickton) would have been caught sooner,” he said.

Graham hopes to eventually see one municipal force from North Saanich to Victoria, and from Oak Bay to the West Shore. In the short-term, he hopes a regional communications centre can be established, but admits it’s a “tough sell.”

Police board member Roy Cullen, who accompanied Graham, told the crowd that policing amalgamation is a question of political will, and said the Ministry of Justice will play a key role if any changes take place.

“The province has enormous power,” Cullen said. “You saw what happened with Esquimalt. The province came in and said, ‘Sorry, Esquimalt and Victoria will stay together as one police force.’”

John Vickers of Amalgamation Victoria was also on hand to speak about the lessons gleaned from Halifax’s amalgamation in the mid-1990’s.

“Halifax is a provincial capital with 390,000 people. They now have one mayor with 16 councillors,” Vickers told the News. “We have 91 mayors and councillors representing our population of 360,000, and three school districts with 24 trustees. It’s about your dollar going a lot further to maximize return.”

Vickers and his colleagues plan to roll out a formal public relations message in the coming months, and possibly get a referendum question on the next municipal ballot.

“The current structure has served the community well,” he said. “But as we grow, there comes a time when it makes sound, practical sense to move this forward.” VPD, RCMP dogs bite far more often than counterparts: probe

Probe shows VPD, RCMP dogs bite more often

Some B.C. police dog units bite and injure people as much as 10 times more than dog units that use a less aggressive style of training, a CTV News investigation has found. Jonathan Woodward, CTV British Columbia Published Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 5:40PM PST Last Updated Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 7:27PM PST Some B.C. police dog units bite and injure people as much as 10 times more than dog units that use a less aggressive style of training, a CTV News investigation has found.

7 That’s an indication that dogs following a “bite and hold” method – meaning that every time they are released, they will bite a subject – are biting subjects when they don’t deserve it, according to a former police dog handler. “Why should people get bit if they don’t have to get bit,” said Doug Deacon, who spent years training police dogs in B.C.

“Does a police officer have a right to go in and punch someone all the time? No. Should a dog be biting all the time? No,” he said. CTV News looked at statistics from municipal police detachments, as well as records disclosed under Access to Information rules from the RCMP. They showed that many police dogs are used to apprehend subjects, some with knives, guns or other weapons, or people who were threatening others. However other times dogs were used to attack people who were hiding behind office equipment, under staircases, or using marijuana. In six cases, the dogs bit innocent people by accident. In one accidental bite, a Maple Ridge caterer, Bill Evanow, was a Good Samaritan trying to help police catch a thief in March 2011. He was mistaken for the thief by the dog, which bit his leg, taking out a chunk of muscle and causing permanent damage. In 56 cases in 2010 and 2011, RCMP dogs bit someone under 18, according to the records. The two youngest people bit were 13-year-old boy whom police allege was operating a dangerous motor vehicle, and a 13-year-old girl whom police say was actively resisting arrest. RCMP Staff Sergeant Dave Willson said that the “bite and hold” training protects officers and dogs from dangerous subjects. At the end of the day, the force trusts the decisions of the dog handlers to engage the dogs in tough situations, he said. “The deploying of the dog to apprehend someone is the decision of the handler. It’s not the dog deciding to bite someone,” he said. In comparison, the training method used by police in Saanich, New Westminster, and Delta police is known as “bark and hold.” In that method, the dog approaches a subject and barks, unless it detects motion or is ordered to bite by the handler. Those three detachments had between zero and three bites each year, the records show. In comparison, Vancouver, which polices a higher population, and the RCMP, which polices a still higher population in BC, injured 88 people and 222 people in 2011 respectively. When the differences in population are taken into account, RCMP dogs bit about 5 times more often per capita, and VPD dogs bit almost 10 times more per capita, the records show. Pivot Legal Society’s Doug King said that his research showed that police dogs accounted for half of all reported injuries by police in B.C. “We know that someone is hospitalized every two days by a police dog,” he said, adding that he believes the provincial government should demand changes. Neither Vancouver Police nor the RCMP could point to any studies on police dog bites in Canada. The Vancouver Police recommended the work of Florida-based criminologist Charles Mesloh, who found that “bark and hold” dogs bit more often for each time they were deployed in Florida. Mesloh told CTV News there were many differences in the way that police dogs were used in the two countries that made comparing the data difficult.

8 However, he said that in Florida he would recommend the “bite and hold” system because it afforded more protection for police and appeared to result in fewer injuries. Deacon said the difference between countries could be explained by weaknesses in control by police dog handlers in local police forces. Some handlers are excellent, he said, but others do not control their dogs well. “I think that if you use the basic foundations from good, sound dog training such as they use in sport, that would really help and enhance police dog control and it would reduce the number of bites and lawsuits,” he said.

ALBERTA Province cuts $10-million cheque for Fort Macleod over cancelled police college

BY STEPHANE MASSINON, CALGARY HERALD JANUARY 10, 2013 CALGARY — The town of Fort Macleod will get a cheque for $10.26 million from the province to reimburse them for the police college project that was scrapped last year.

In interviews, Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths and Fort Macleod Mayor Shaun Patience said the municipality and province have now reached an agreement to settle the matter.

“Starting a new year, we’ll now put that in our rear-view mirror and move forward and start forging some new plans,” said Patience.

“It’s up to us to now take advantage of the opportunity we’ve got.”

For a town with an annual budget of around $7 million, the cheque will go a long way.

In late August 2012, the provincial government announced that it was cancelling its plans for the $122 million project that was intended to train police and peace officers from across the province and was to feature classrooms, a track, shooting range and residence.

The announcement infuriated the small town in southern Alberta that claimed to have spent $4 million alone in installing services to the site.

A sod-turning ceremony had been held in August 2011 and sketches were later released for the project. But only weeks after the public got a glimpse of what the college would look like, the project was abruptly cancelled leaving the town out of pocket.

9 Griffiths said the town submitted all their costs in the last eight years related to the project.

“The municipality provided a list of all their expenses and we went through and analyzed each one,” said Griffiths.

“All of them were legitimate expenses they incurred directly related to the police college and for investments made around the police college to facilitate it. It was only right to compensate them for those.”

The agreement does not include the engineering firm that the province had entered into an agreement with, said Griffiths.

“I know that there’s disappointment and I understand their disappointment in the police college not going ahead, and it was a tough decision to make,” said Griffiths, adding that police agencies were not certain they would use the facility.

Police departments in Calgary and Edmonton, as well as the RCMP, said the police college was of little use to them and that it likely would not be used as planned. Instead, police hoped the money earmarked for its construction would go to more pressing policing needs.

MLA Pat Stier said in a statement: “We remain in constant communication with the mayor and look forward to having the town and the community fairly compensated for all of their efforts over the past few years.”

Patience said the work at the site is still ongoing and he doesn’t know what will be built there now. However, with new infrastructure and land being developed, it could be a new opportunity for the small town.

“It’s a different future than we had envisioned and certainly a bright one.”

Government outlines plans for supporting 911 operators Beacon AB News | January 18, 2013 |

The government has committed to providing all-out support for the country’s 911 call centers. The government plans to introduce new supports for 911 operators and call centres so when Albertans dial 911, they continue to get the help they need in emergencies.

“Alberta’s 911 service is absolutely essential and our government is acting to ensure the system not only continues to be available in the coming years, but gets even better by adapting to the new realities of cellphones, texting and other innovations,” says Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths.

10 The changes will address a number of challenges facing Alberta’s 911 operators and call centres through the following:

- Creating the ability for the government to introduce, in collaboration with 911 service providers, province-wide standards for 911 processes and procedures - Giving 911 call centres more legal protection - Supporting 911 call centres’ efforts to integrate “next generation” 911 technology like GPS and texting - Introducing penalties for prank 911 calls - Ensuring equity among phone users in contributing to the cost of 911 service

There are an estimated 2.7 million cellphone subscriptions in Alberta, and many 911 operators across Alberta say cellphones can account for up to 70 per cent of all calls they receive.

Unlike landline users, cellphone users do not directly contribute to the cost of 911 services.

“This is great news for Public Safety Answering Points in the Province,” says City of Lethbridge Public Safety Communications Centre Manager and Alberta E911 Advisory Association Chair Chris Kearns. “911 centres have experienced dramatic increases in calls from cellphones, and new technologies also create issues.”

“This makes it difficult to keep up and remain current,” shares Kearns. “We welcome the Provincial support.”

“There is no doubt that wireless technology plays a crucial role in keeping Canadians safe,” says Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association President and Chief Executive Officer Bernard Lord. “The industry’s continuing partnerships with the Government of Alberta and the public safety community will help ensure the 911 system remains a vital lifeline for Albertans.”

Chronic Edmonton police department problems outlined in report

BY MARIAM IBRAHIM, EDMONTON JOURNAL JANUARY 15, 2013

EDMONTON - A six-year-old internal report about the Edmonton Police Service exposed chronic problems with police investigations, training programs, professional ethics and officer conduct in court.

11 The police department produced the report in April 2006 to increase public trust by identifying any problems with ethics and professionalism.

The report was obtained by the Journal from the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, which fought for six years to make it public through freedom of information laws.

Defence lawyer Tom Engel, with the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, said the documents reveal systemic problems within the department.

“I think it demonstrates that, as of 2006, there were some very deep-rooted problems in the Edmonton Police Service in terms of the culture, their investigative competence and their basic misunderstanding of their role as police officers in the criminal justice system,” Engel said Tuesday.

In a statement emailed to the Journal, police Chief Rod Knecht said the department has “evolved exponentially,” including in its relationships with the police commission and the Crown prosecutor’s office, since the report was issued nearly seven years ago.

Knecht said the department has implemented a new information management centre that works to ensure high quality police reports are sent to court and that the Crown has the information necessary to prosecute cases successfully.

The department implemented leadership and ethics training, along with a program to encourage positive officer behaviour, Knecht said, “to help us strive for the highest level of accountability and service.”

But Engel said many problems outlined in the report persist.

“I can say that reading that material, it’s not as if they did the professionalism report and all is well. These problems they’ve identified are still manifested every day at the law court buildings,” he said, citing concerns with officer testimony, investigational practices and inadequate record-keeping.

Police spokesman Scott Pattison said in an email that Knecht was unavailable for further comment “as the report in question is dated.”

Engel was critical of the police department’s response to the report’s release.

“I think it’s a disgrace that the Edmonton Police Service, Alberta Justice ... and the Edmonton Police Commission, which is our civilian oversight body, would spend all sorts of taxpayer dollars fighting to keep this secret from the citizens of Edmonton,” Engel said.

“Then they have the nerve to say, after they drag it out for six years, that it’s old news.”

The report was commissioned after a series of scandals concerning the conduct of officers, including the 2004 Overtime stakeout that saw a journalist and the

12 head of the police commission targeted in a failed drunk driving sting that later cost former police Chief Fred Rayner his job.

One of the most troubling sections of the report highlights results from consultations with Crown prosecutors, who raised concerns about a lack of professionalism exhibited by police officers. Two of the prosecutors surveyed “witnessed criminal conduct by members (assaults) while on a ridealong” with police officers, the report says. It urges ridealong officers be chosen more carefully in the future.

“Members who are tasked with taking individuals on ridealongs need to be carefully selected and provided clear direction with regard to their conduct while on the ridealong.”

Engel said he plans on pursuing those claims with the police department to determine if action was ever taken against the officers.

“If they could do that in front of Crown prosecutors, one has to be pretty concerned with that they would do out of the sight of the Crowns,” he said.

The report also raised concerns about the conduct of patrol officers in court, citing a declining skill level in properly testifying, making cases more difficult to win. Officers “are not as well prepared for court” as they had previously been, and many “seemed more interested in socializing” at court than in helping with witness management or by reviewing case files.

The report further notes “many officers do not understand, at a conceptual level, the role of the Crown in the criminal justice system.”

There were consistent complaints from the Crown prosecutor’s office regarding the quality of police reports.

“The Crown prosecutors unanimously advised that the quality of the investigations being conducted by patrol officers is often substandard,” the report says, citing examples that included poor witness statements, failure to obtain witness statements and the failure to seize relevant evidence.

Michelle Davio, spokeswoman for Alberta Justice, said the quality of police reports being sent to court has improved since the report was produced.

She said concerns over the release of the report were focused on maintaining the anonymity of the prosecutors surveyed.

Results from a survey of the Edmonton Police Commission at the time revealed concerns about ethics training and police accountability. Only one of the nine commissioners said police were offered enough ethics training and five of the nine said they agreed that inappropriate and unethical behaviour is tolerated within the department.

13 None of the current commissioners were with the commission when the report was produced, said acting chairman Shami Sandhu.

“Seeing the trends in my last three years on the commission, I’m satisfied that things are going in the right direction,” Sandhu said, adding that former Chief Mike Boyd and his successor, Knecht, both introduced new procedures and programs.

He also said the commission’s concerns over the release of the document centred around ensuring the anonymity of survey respondents.

Police and civilian employees were also surveyed and found that while “there were no major incidents of corruption within the organization, there were many things that still could be done to improve the ethical and professional behaviour.”

Former Calgary police officer faces more child porn charges Stephen Huggett charged with extortion, criminal harassment and possession of child pornography CBC News Posted: Jan 14, 2013 11:43 AM MT A former Calgary police officer is facing more child pornography charges after a year-long investigation into a woman's allegations that she was criminally harassed by her ex-boyfriend.

The woman in her 50s also alleges she was sexually assaulted while in the relationship.

During the investigation, police say they found information that the suspect had been accessing child pornography.

Stephen Huggett, 58, was arrested last Friday and police obtained a warrant to search his Willow Park home.

He now faces numerous charges, including extortion, criminal harassment and possession of child pornography.

The former police officer was sentenced to nine months in jail in 2009 after pleading guilty to one count of possessing child pornography.

SASKATCHEWAN

Police chief calls for action, funding after death in cell

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BY HANNAH SPRAY, THE STARPHOENI JANUARY 17, 2013

In the wake of the latest death in police custody, Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill is frustrated with the lack of help developing a strategy for intoxicated people who end up in police cells.

"It's a large, complex issue that by default remains the responsibility of the police," Weighill said in an interview Wednesday.

"It's clearly not a law-and-order issue. It's a health issue. There's absolutely no way we can continue to keep putting people in detention areas who should be in a health facility."

Police major crimes, along with the chief coroner, is investigating the sudden death of a 57-year-old man who was arrested Tuesday for public intoxication.

The man, whose name has not been released, had outstanding summary offence warrants and was taken to detention.

After arriving at the unit, police say the man was "assessed by an on-duty paramedic and regularly checked overnight by detention staff."

On Wednesday around 7: 50 a.m., the man was found dead in his cell.

As per policy, an independent investigator with Saskatchewan Justice will oversee the investigation.

In 2011, a two-year pilot project was implemented in the detention unit. The Saskatoon Health Region provided funding for MD Ambulance paramedics to work in the unit to enhance care for intoxicated people. A paramedic is on duty in detention from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., seven days a week.

The Action Accord project is scheduled to end in June 2013, but Weighill said he believes it will be extended for another fiscal year.

Weighill commended the support of the Saskatoon Health Region and other partners - including the Saskatoon board of police commissioners, Saskatoon Tribal Council and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations - on the project. However, he said the root of the problem still needs to be addressed: The fact that individuals with mental health and addictions issues end up in detention in the first place.

The Action Accord partners want to see the creation of a long-term wellness centre. It's a goal the provincial government needs to be involved with, Weighill said.

"I really want to sound my frustration in this whole dilemma," Weighill said. "And I'm reaching out and requesting some strategy assistance or financial aid from

15 the ministries of health, social services and corrections to help us with this critical issue.

"We have to put an end to placing unfortunate individuals in police cells for non- criminal mental health and addiction issues."

Kathy Willerth, director of mental health and addictions for the Ministry of Health, said officials are willing to talk with Weighill about the issue of access to services.

"We certainly understand Chief Weighill's frustrations and we certainly are more than willing to listen to the input of the Saskatoon Police Service and the recommendations of the chief coroner," she said. "These certainly are not problems that have any simple overnight solution."

Protesting peacefully legal, Regina Police Service explains Reported by CJME staff First Posted: Jan 17, 2013 10:49am | Last Updated: Jan 17, 2013 4:32pm Twitter exploded in frustration on Wednesday with some questioning the Regina Police Service for assisting with the Idle No More protest.

"We're there to ensure the safety of everyone involved," said Regina Police Service spokesperson Elizabeth Popowich.

The Treaty Four Grassroots Movement organized the Reconciliation Ride and Walk. A group of about 100 people moved from their starting point at the Cree Land Mini-Mart on Albert Street at 5th Avenue south to the Legislative building.

"There is frustration that occurs because people may not necessarily agree with the opinion that's being voiced," said Popowich.

"This is a democracy and that is not a reason to try to shut down a demonstration or protest. They have that right."

Popowich points to the Charter of Rights.

"In this country, everyone has a fundamental right to expressing belief, thought and opinion and that includes freedom of press and other media communication.

"People also have the right to gather peacefully and that is really what a demonstration is. It's a group of people who want to express opinion and they gather in a peaceful and organized way."

"Really, it's our job to uphold that right to expression."

She said officer ensure that right is expressed in a peaceful, organized manner so that protestors and the public are kept safe.

16 Popowich also points out, police typically help with other large events. Officers have assisted other protests, including those held by farmers and labour groups.

Slow-down planned for Highway 8 near Kamsack turned into short blockade

Most of the protests in Saskatchewan were aimed at slowing down traffic, but on a section of Highway eight north of Kamsack, traffic was blocked completely for two hours.

RCMP Corporal Rob King explains that the local Kamsack RCMP detachment originally convinced organizers on the Keeseekoose First Nation to do a slow- down protest instead of a blockade.

“While they were doing slow-downs the reserve to the south which is the Cote, decided to do a blockade,” he said.

So RCMP on the scene had to change their plans as well. Instead of directing traffic slowly down the highway they had to re-route it altogether.

King says traffic wasn't too busy in the area at that time and it was over within two hours. Officers on the scene explained the situation, asking drivers familiar with the area to take grid roads.

When asked whether or not the blockade was legal, he said police response is complicated.

“It’s not a yes or no answer, you have to protect someone’s right to peaceful freedom and expression and you also want to ensure a safe environment,” King said.

“Any given situation if there’s a way around enforcement and still keep people happy – that’s the venue that we’ll take."

In a situation like the two-hour blockade on Highway eight, King says RCMP officers look at the big picture and the fact that it only lasted a short time to determine a course of action.

Estevan Police Service receives government funding Sasklifestyles.com JANUARY 18, 2013

BY DAVID WILLBERG The Estevan Police Service has received $300,000 in Targeted Police Initiatives funding from the provincial Corrections and Policing department, through the Ministry of Justice.

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The funds will be directed towards three existing officers on the force, including the EPS's school liaison officer and two organized/serious crimes officers, said Police Chief Del Block. Those officers are part of a proactive, community-based policing initiatives to help reduce crime.

The growth that Estevan has experienced has been positive, Block said, but the EPS has been challenged with an increase in call load, criminal activity including violent crime, and drug activity.

“The Estevan Police Service has set new records for the past four years,” said Block. “These records are based on statistics that are collected by Stats Canada, and not just our own stats.”

The increase in crime has shifted the EPS from being a pro-active to a reactive police force. Government funding, along with the addition of several new police officers, allow the force to meet challenges and keep Estevan safe.

Block said the police service has seen benefits of targeted policing, as the number of drug related crimes was down last year.

“We have continually seen rises in drug activity and enforcement through 2009, 2010 and 2011, but I have just completed the annual report, and for the first time last year, we have seen the drug activity drop,” said Block.

“Have we beat the drugs in Estevan? Absolutely not. They're there, they're going to continue to be there, and we're going to continue fighting them.”

Mayor Roy Ludwig noted that Estevan's police officers are busy every day and night, and they look forward to the day when crime will be down in the city.

Councillor Kevin Smith, who is also the chair of the Estevan Board of Police Commissioners, echoed Ludwig's comments, and applauded local officers for their efforts.

Estevan MLA Doreen Eagles said that targeted police initiatives help reduce crime.

“Crime remains a constant concern for our government, and we are pleased to work with communities on programs and initiatives to reduce crime,” said Estevan MLA Doreen Eagles.

Eagles noted in 2011, the provincial crime rate dropped three per cent. The youth crime rate is four per cent lower than it was 10 years ago.

“Connecting police and communities often leads to higher levels of confidence, co-operation and higher levels of trust to police in communities,” said Eagles.

18 MANITOBA January 11, 2013

Province To Build New Jail In Dauphin

DAUPHIN-Manitoba has selected the site for a new correctional centre to replace the Dauphin Correctional Centre, which is nearly 100 years old, Justice Minister Andrew Swan announced here today.

The exact size of the new facility has not been determined, but planning is underway and it will have a higher-rated capacity than the current facility, said Swan.

"We're following through with our commitment to build a new correctional facility in Dauphin," the minister said. "The new building will provide enhanced space for programming and, as was the case with the new Women's Correctional Centre, this new facility will offer a better and safer environment for corrections officers to do their work."

The land selected for the construction of the new correctional centre is being donated to the province by the City of Dauphin and the Rural Municipality of Dauphin.

"We're pleased the provincial government has selected a site for the new correctional facility to be built in Dauphin," said Mayor Eric Irwin. "The new facility will provide a better environment for the rehabilitation of inmates as well as new employment opportunities for residents of Dauphin and the surrounding area."

The construction of a new correctional facility was a recommendation of the Adult Corrections Capacity Review Committee report. The work of the committee will help to inform the future planning of the justice system, said Swan.

"I'd like to thank the Adult Corrections Capacity Review Committee for their work. They've provided us with helpful advice on where to focus our efforts in terms of reducing the number of individuals entering the corrections system and reducing recidivism through support for community integration."

The rate of mental illness among inmates was identified as an area of concern by the review committee. In the months ahead, Manitoba Justice will be working with stakeholders on enhanced mental-health programming, Swan said.

He said Manitoba Justice will also create an advisory group to inform future planning for correctional facility construction, adding the group will focus on creating safer work environments for staff and ensuring that time spent in corrections facilities is focused on providing inmates with the tools they need to succeed in the community upon release.

19 ONTARIO Windsor police, city head to arbitration Saturday CBC News Posted: Jan 11, 2013 11:16 AM ET Last Updated: Jan 11, 2013 1:30 PM ET The Windsor Police Services Board and the union representing Windsor police officers are heading to arbitration this weekend.

The association is looking for a contract similar to counterparts across the province. The city is hoping to prove that's something Windsor can't afford.

The head of the police association said his officers face the same dangers as any in other departments and should be paid accordingly despite the city's financial shape.

"As we've seen, there is a lot of spending going on in the city," DeJong said, referencing the new $73-million aquatic centre. "So, I think that from a taxpayer's perspective, they expect and deserve effective policing right?

"Our members deserve to be compensated fairly given their counterparts in the country. We want to maintain our comparability with other police services in the province."

A first-class constable in Windsor is currently paid more than $80,000 a year. In Toronto or Niagara, it's closer to $90,000.

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said the city will not cut other departments to subsidize policing.

So if the arbitrator sides with the association, Windsor Police Chief Al Frederick says he'll have to get creative because, in the end, it's up to the chief to balance the books.

He said a salary increase will mean tough choices. He may have to re-organize the department or re-assign duties. Whatever juggling he has to do based on an arbitrator's decision, Frederick said public safety comes first.

"I have a line in the sand that I cannot go below in my mind and I will not go below that line," he said.

DeJong called arbitration "a necessary step."

"We want to get things settled so we have some stability," he said. "We are looking forward to this process being completed."

Many Ontario municipalities are struggling with police costs.

20

Various police forces, government agencies and politicians are meeting at a summit in Ottawa next week to look for solutions.

Tomorrow is the first day of arbitration. The resulting contract for police is expected sometime this spring.

Elgin OPP bucking provincial trends

By Nick Lypaczewski, St. Thomas Times-Journal Wednesday, January 16, 2013 7:08:24 EST PM

The Elgin County OPP detachment is ahead of the curve when it comes to cost savings.

That's the message detachment commander Insp. Brad Fishleigh reported to the Elgin Group Police Services Board Wednesday during its first meeting of 2013.

Fishleigh was speaking in response to Ontario auditor general Jim McCarter's 2012 annual report which was released earlier this week, specifically the section dealing with the OPP.

“I've read through it and I’m not going to argue any of the statistics in the auditor general's report,” Fishleigh said at the Elgin Administration Building during Wednesday’s meeting.

“But I think that the board should be aware that I've had a look at some of the statistics and specifically to how they relate to Elgin County and certainly our statistics do not pair out the same as the overall OPP statistics for the province.”

Within the auditor general report, McCarter said overtime costs for officers have increased by 60% since 2004 to $53 million in 2011/12.

In, Elgin County, however, Fishleigh said the force reduced overtime by 18% and reduced that by another 42% in 2012 for a total of 3,281 hours last year.

“Overtime provincially, obviously, is affected by things like G8, G20, the Goderich tornado, all of these provincial responsibilities that are outside of the county’s contract and the county's control,” the commander explained.

“And they do have an effect on the cost of policing across the board, without a doubt, but they certainly don’t have an immediate effect on your cost for policing in Elgin County and the contract here.”

The McCarter report also said current shift arrangements result in over-staffing during slow early-morning hours compared to busier afternoon hours.

21 “We estimated that improved shift scheduling could allow the OPP to save millions of dollars per year or, at the very least, make its officers more available to respond to calls for service,” the report said.

Again, Fishleigh said the Elgin OPP is one step ahead with its 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. overlap shift, a cost-reduction method to reduce overtime which was implemented in 2010.

“We're a little bit ahead of the game on that,” he added.

Later in the meeting, Fishleigh presented the board its Q4 report part of which said the force recorded $48,584 in recoverable expenses for the year. The savings came through reduced records checks and traffic and incident reports among others.

Board member Bill Walters anticipated the auditor general report will be the subject of a lot of discussion among the Rural Ontario Municipal Association, the Association of Municipalities Ontario and municipality and police service boards across the country.

“With all the things that are here, it's not going to be a quick fix to fix all of (the problems) or any of them at this point in time,” he added.

“So I think it's going to be a work in progress but (the report) obviously lays out a pattern and a starting point where the government , police service boards, municipalities and the police are going to have to collectively look at this and see if there aren't ways and means that the system can be somewhat improved.”

After Fishleigh presented the Elgin comparisons, Walters suggested the detachment commander submit a summary report to each of the county's municipalities to outline what the local detachment is doing differently before the Elgin OPP year-end report comes out in about three weeks.

“It's really important, I think on an issue like this, that we take this Coles Notes version of just exactly what you said, put that in writing,” Walters said. New contracts as police, board reach deal

By Brendan Wedley, Peterborough Examiner Wednesday, January 16, 2013 5:10:26 EST PM

Policing cost increases are starting to go down, Peterborough Lakefield Police Services Board chairman Ken Armstrong said, pointing to salary increases outlined in recently reached agreements.

The board reached agreements with city police officers, its civilian workers and senior officers over the last month, Armstrong said.

22 “It’s a good deal,” he said. “They made concessions to the point that they stayed within the 1.75% to match city targets.”

For this year, the salary increase amounts to about 0.75% since the officers and other police workers aren’t getting an increase until October, when their salaries will go up by 3%, Armstrong said.

The full impact of the 3% hike will be felt in 2014.

On Jan. 1, 2014, wages will increase 1.75%, he said. They’ll go up by another 1.25% on July 1, 2014.

In the third year of the three-year contracts, there isn’t a set percentage increase since the salary increases will be based on the Consumer Price Index, Armstrong said.

Armstrong pointed out that comparable police services are giving 3% wage increases for their officers.

“I think we really have a made-in-Peterborough solution to what has been a problem,” he said. “Those sorts of costs will start to go down.”

By reaching agreements the board avoided the arbitration process, Armstrong said.

“If you go to arbitration, they (police) would have got 3% right off the top,” he said. “I think they have been fiscally responsible, as have we.

“They all understood the limitations that were imposed.”

Municipalities across the country have been struggling with rising policing costs – and the vast majority of those costs are wages and benefits. Federal, provincial, municipal, police board and police representatives are meeting in Ottawa to discuss the issue during a two-day summit that ends Thursday.

Peterborough police services board and the police service didn’t send anybody to the summit because they’ll be represented by their associations, such as the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards, Armstrong said.

“There’s nothing substantial coming out of that… but they are talking about it,” he said.

City council has taken a hard line on the issue.

It has approved funding increases for policing larger than the increases to the city’s overall budget this year and last year, but it gave less than the requested amounts.

Last year, the police services board asked for an 8.4% increase in the city’s funding and got 5.7%.

23

For 2013 council approved a 5.4% hike that pushes the cost of policing to $21.3 million from $20.2 million last year. The police board had asked for an additional $425,000.

Council has started a process that could lead to splitting up the joint Peterborough/Lakefield service by the end of 2014.

The expenses in the new collective agreements fit within the board’s budget, Armstrong said.

“We’re struggling with the fiscal management of rising policing costs. We’ve tried to do our very best. It’s a negotiated collective bargaining settlement,” he said. “They (police and civilian staff) understood exactly that we were bargaining in good faith but we were bargaining with problems that were looming over us.”

A representative of the Peterborough Police Association couldn’t be reached for comment.

Port Hope police name acting second-in- command

Sergeant Bryant Wood promoted to acting staff sergeant Jan 11, 2013 - 4:30 AM| Northumberland News

'I will apply my skills and knowledge to the task and strive to provide a seamless changeover as Deputy Chief Hull begins his retirement.' Staff Sergeant Bryant Wood PORT HOPE -- There's a new acting staff sergeant patrolling the streets of Port Hope. To fill the void left by retiring Deputy Chief Garry Hull, the Port Hope Police Service has promoted Bryant Wood to acting staff sergeant.

On March 1, Staff Sgt. Wood will take over as second-in-command of the municipal police force.

"I am very pleased to have been selected to assist Chief (Kevin) McAlpine and the Police Services Board, during this time of transition," Staff Sgt. Wood said. "Having been a part of this police service for almost 20 years, I will apply my skills and knowledge to the task and strive to provide a seamless changeover as Deputy Chief Hull begins his retirement."

Chief McAlpine said while interviewing current sergeants, it was obvious the Port Hope Police Service and Port Hope are well served by officers with various skills, talents and a devout loyalty to the people of Port Hope.

24 "In selecting Staff Sgt. Wood for this task, I am very satisfied that he will continue to apply his considerable knowledge and expertise in the best interests of our members and our citizens," Chief McAlpine said.

In 2009, Staff Sgt. Wood was the recipient of two national bravery citations, the Lieutenant Governor's Star of Courage for saving a woman during a September 2007 fire, and a medal of bravery for rescuing an eight-year-old boy from a burning house in September 2006.

Opinion: Government has allowed police to operate in vacuum of accountability with aboriginal protesters

Christie Blatchford | Jan 11, 2013 7:41 PM ET | National Post

“The lack of accountability for the overall policy of the OPP with respect to Caledonia is inexcusable in a country and province that is simultaneously committed both to enforcing the rule of law and to reaching just land settlements with Indigenous people.” — University of Western Ontario political science professor Andrew Sancton In the news business, you often feel thick as a plank, or at least I do.

But I wrote an entire book about the breakdown of law-and-order in Caledonia, Ont., and yet, until Andrew Sancton’s note of this week, I’d managed to miss perhaps the most important lesson that Sidney Linden, the judge who headed the lengthy inquiry into the police-aboriginal standoff at Ipperwash in 1995, had to teach.

It appears my thickness is of particular density.

The quote above is from a piece Professor Sancton wrote and was published last year in the journal Canadian Public Administration.

The piece is called “Democratic policing”: Lessons from Ipperwash and Caledonia, and the quotes are around the first two words because it was Justice Linden who to virtually no public attention and sadly to little effect in government, recommended this model of policing.

Justice Linden, of course, was concerned with the events at Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995, where a native protester named Dudley George was fatally shot when the Ontario Provincial Police moved in, and in general with issues of how police in Ontario handle aboriginal blockades.

25 A more intelligent and sympathetic view of aboriginal and Canadian history would be hard to find.

And the Linden report, and the hearings which led to it and which were still going on when protesters from Six Nations first moved onto a development site called Douglas Creek Estates in 2006, got scads of media attention.

But in the black-and-white way that comes naturally to the news business, the Ipperwash dispute was reduced to this: The Mike Harris Conservative government, impatient for action, had inappropriately influenced the OPP, with tragedy the result; Ontario must be vigilant to see that such a thing never happened again; thus police “independence” must be ferociously guarded.

Yet Justice Linden specifically found that though certainly mistakes had been made at Ipperwash, the Harris government had not unduly influenced the OPP, or, as Professor Sancton put it, “the government was perfectly entitled to do so as long as it followed procedures that were clear, transparent and respected established lines of authority.”

That’s because there’s a proper place for government to set policies for the police, just as it does in other spheres, and that includes decisions, as the professor wrote, on “how the police are to respond to specific challenges in the real world, such as protests and occupations.”

As Mr. Sancton pointed out, while Justice Linden agrees that in “the core area of law enforcement (who should be investigated, arrested and/or charged)” police need to be independent of government direction, that doesn’t mean the minister responsible for policing should adopt a “hands off” posture.

In fact, as Mr. Sancton noted – and he’s the first person I’ve read to say it – Justice Linden did not recommend the “police independence” model, but rather the “democratic policing” one. The judge’s analysis, Mr. Sancton said, “effectively repudiates the hands-off position taken by the [Dalton] McGuinty government concerning Caledonia.”

While most of the witnesses who either appeared before the judge or have spoken publicly — including the premier, various government ministers and senior OPP leaders — duly parroted “the nostrum that government ministers have no right to interfere in police ‘operational’ decisions,” Justice Linden didn’t accept this view of police independence.

The difficulty, Mr. Sancton concluded, is that this model doesn’t give sufficient authority to the responsible minister — or accountability.

That was Justice Linden’s end game — not that government policy shouldn’t inform the police, but rather that the government be transparent about the policy and answerable to Ontarians for it, and for any consequences.

As Mr. Sancton wrote, the judge’s real concern was not to insulate the police from government control but to protect them from “informal influence by an

26 unspecified array of governmental operatives” ranging from the premier on down — the very thing that happened at Ipperwash.

What Justice Linden’s recommendations in this regard emphasize are focusing “responsibility for the OPP on a single minister,” making him or her answerable for policing policy, and seeing that the minister’s directives are fully public.

As Professor Sancton said, had the Linden scheme been in place when the Caledonia occupation began, “the minister responsible for the OPP would have had a decision to make: does he issue a policy directive to the OPP or not?” If the answer was yes, he would have had to make the directive public; if the answer was no, “the minister would have had to have been publicly responsible for not having issued a policy.”

(I emphasize here that none of us — the judge, the professor or me the plank — is talking about the government telling the police whom to arrest.)

In the end, nothing has changed, despite the Linden report. Mr. Sancton said that undoubtedly, such a vacuum of accountability suits some. They might prefer the OPP commissioners be left to do whatever they wish, as indeed has happened, with OPP boss Chris Lewis recently deciding that during an Idle No More rail blockade last weekend, his officers would not assist the local sheriff in enforcing a court injunction, and being unrepentant when criticized by the judge for the force’s “passivity.”

At the very minimum, Mr. Sancton said, commissioners should be “required to defend their own policy decisions publicly.”

Finally, the professor concluded in his article, “Commanders in the Canadian Armed Forces are given considerable leeway by their political masters in determining how personnel are trained and deployed, especially when they are actually in a field of conflict.

”But no one suggests that they should be given a general mandate to ‘keep Canada secure’ and then be left alone to decide what to do.”

That’s precisely the situation in Ontario – where native chiefs are threatening more rail and road blockades next week – right now: The government mantra is hands off the police, the police are accountable to no one, including the courts, and no one is answerable to the people.

Ottawa police officer demoted for conduct that was ‘a humiliation to his profession’

BY MEGHAN HURLEY, OTTAWA CITIZEN JANUARY 10, 2013

27

OTTAWA — An Ottawa police constable who pepper-sprayed a woman hiding from him and failed to keep notes of controversial drug arrests was sentenced Thursday to a 12-month demotion and extensive retraining.

Const. Keith Heaton pleaded guilty to 23 charges under the Police Services Act, including 19 counts of discreditable conduct. The charges stemmed from three separate professional standards investigations.

“Police Constable Heaton’s conduct, with respect to the three investigations, was extremely unprofessional to say the least, and a humiliation to his profession,” Hearing Officer Terence Kelly said Thursday in his decision.

Heaton, who was hired by Ottawa police in 2004, was demoted Thursday to a third-class constable for six months. After achieving a satisfactory performance review, Heaton will move to the rank of a second-class constable.

After a second satisfactory performance review, Heaton can return to the rank of first-class constable.

During the 12-month demotion, Heaton will be partnered with a coach officer and will be considered a “doubled unit” during that time.

In addition to the demotion, Kelly ordered Heaton to undergo extensive retraining.

In the next 12 months, Heaton will train in advanced patrol, use of force and Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database.

Heaton will also take courses in search and seizure, arrest authorities, investigative detention, criminal offences, warrants and the Criminal Code of Canada.

Kelly also ordered Heaton to re-train in Ottawa police policies and procedures, including report and note taking and drug investigations.

If Heaton doesn’t complete the training and receives unsatisfactory performance reviews, he could face dismissal, Kelly said.

The charges stem from three incidents, beginning with one on Dec. 23, 2008. Heaton was charged with discreditable conduct and unlawful exercise of authority after he flushed drugs down the toilet at a west end apartment.

After the tenant invited officers and two Ottawa Community Housing security guards into the unit, Heaton saw a man in the bedroom trying to hide drugs.

Heaton went into the bedroom, closed the door and searched the man. Heaton found crack cocaine, pipes, OxyContin pills and cash.

Heaton arrested the man, but didn’t make any notes of it in his duty book, Kelly wrote in his decision.

28

A report written by one of the security guards noted that Heaton flushed the drugs down the toilet. Once the drugs were gone, Heaton took the handcuffs off the man and left the apartment.

Heaton was charged with unnecessary exercise of authority after an incident at a west end apartment on Jan. 4, 2010.

Heaton said the tenant gave him permission to enter the unit to “look for people,” Kelly said in his decision.

When police searched the unit, they found a woman crouched under the kitchen sink.

Heaton told the woman, who he knew to be a sex trade worker and drug addict, to come out from under the sink.

When the woman didn’t immediately move from under the kitchen sink, Heaton used his pepper spray, Kelly wrote in his decision.

Three other Police Services Act charges Heaton faced stemmed from a call for drug use in an apartment building on March 2, 2010.

After knocking on the door of an apartment unit, Heaton opened the unlocked door and went in.

Heaton didn’t write in his notes why he entered the unit, but later told a professional standards investigator that music was blaring in the unit and he could smell “rotting flesh,” Kelly wrote in his decision.

But there wasn’t a dead body in the apartment as Heaton had suspected, but instead he found rotting garbage.

Once inside the apartment, the officers potted tools used to grind marijuana, which Heaton seized. Neighbours reported seeing a police officer dumping items into a garbage can outside the building, Kelly wrote in his decision.

Heaton arrested a man in the apartment for drug possession, obstructing police and resisting arrest.

The man complained that the handcuffs were too tight, which caused injury to both of his wrists.

The Ottawa police professional standards section asked a federal Crown to review the case against the man.

After the Crown looked at the case, the charges against the man were withdrawn, Kelly wrote in his decision.

29 Heaton was also charged with discreditable conduct after a review of his CPIC use between May 2008 and February 2010.

The review revealed Heaton accessed CPIC 17 times for personal use.

While Kelly said in his decision that Heaton should have known better than to use CPIC for personal use, he cited “social and personal life situations” that may have impacted the officer’s behaviour.

Kingston and Ottawa residents can go online to find out what criminal activity occurred overnight, but Londoners can't

By Kate Dubinski, The London Free Press Friday, January 11, 2013 9:16:37 EST PM Every morning in Kingston, you can check online what crimes happened overnight in that city.

Residents can find out what reported assaults, break-ins or thefts happened in their neighbourhood.

Ottawa residents have the same information at their fingertips.

Other Ontarians — in Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville — will get the service in the next two weeks.

And Londoners?

Sorry. Our police say they’re stretched too thin to provide the service.

Yet the service, which costs $2,000 annually in Kingston and between $4,000 and $5,000 in Halton — the price tag varies based on population — is an important one, said Halton Regional police Chief Stephen Tanner, who also heads the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

“It’s just all about transparency and sharing statistics with people who can look at the numbers any time they want to,” Tanner said.

“It’s what we call cleansed data, so it doesn’t give too many details. But it lets people look at different patterns of crime.”

The crimereports.com website takes data generated automatically when there’s a reported crime in the participating municipalities.

Every morning, the crimes are uploaded to the websites.

30 “There’s no more work to it, really,’’ Tanner said. “There’s an automatic exchange of data.”

But London police say resources are too lean to provide the service.

One of three analysts with the force is on another assignment, said media relations Const. Ken Steeves, and police can’t afford to take any additional resources from that unit.

London police do provide Neighbourhood Watch with statistics on residential and commercial break and enters as well as stolen vehicles. Neighbourhood Watch staffers map the crimes, but not daily. The last time the website was updated recently was Dec. 6, 2012.

For Tanner, the almost real-time crime report is a way for police to work with citizens, he said.

“What people may think of as an unsafe area might not actually have a high incident rate,” he said.

Someone might notice there were three break-ins in their neighbourhood, for example, and be extra-vigilant about reporting a suspicious vehicle, Tanner said.

“That’s where I see the crime-prevention aspect of it. You have to have an engaged public and it’s a win-win. We need the public to be our eyes and ears.”

In London, police use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to get out important bulletins, crime-prevention tips and other information the public needs to know about, Steeves said.

The force hasn’t ruled out being part of something like crimereports.com

Officer gets absolute discharge in theft case

By Scott Dunn, Sun Times, Owen Sound Monday, January 7, 2013 6:01:06 EST PM OWEN SOUND - A Niagara Regional Police constable’s criminal charges of prowling at night and mischief were withdrawn and he was granted an absolute discharge Friday in the Ontario Court of Justice after stealing a neighbour’s video surveillance equipment last summer.

Jeffrey May, 54, of Hamilton, pleaded guilty Friday to the theft charge in an Owen Sound courtroom. The charge related to events last June 2 near Pike Bay, on the Bruce Peninsula. An absolute discharge brings no conviction.

Defence lawyer Brian Barrie said in an interview the incident involved a long- standing problem with neighbours near May’s family cottage. The cameras which May took down were aimed at neighbours’ private driveways, Barrie said,

31 summarizing a sentencing brief he provided to Justice Julia Morneau, who agreed with the defence request for an absolute discharge.

Grey County Crown attorney Michael Martin had sought a conditional discharge for the theft, the only charge on which he proceeded. He wanted probation imposed to require May not to have contact with the neighbours whose cameras he stole, Martin said in an interview.

“He went on their property and he ripped down $1,087 worth of camera equipment. And hid it in a ditch for a month. And these were their security cameras,” Martin said. “You don’t take things into your own hands, regardless of whether or not you feel it’s righteous or not,” he added. May “knows better, he’s a detective.” Incidents of vandalism prompted the neighbours to put up cameras aimed at a shared laneway, which is beside the May cottage, Martin said.

Barrie filed a letter with updated information about May from his counsellor. May paid restitution for the camera equipment which he’d thrown to the ground the night in question, Barrie said. May also performed 250 hours of community service work voluntarily, Barrie said.

He said May’s mother, his last surviving parent, died in Dec. 2011. He was at the family cottage in June while “dealing with quite a number of personal issues.” He was “having difficulty sleeping, in dealing with loss of parent. He was having difficulty dealing with other neighbours,” who May felt had ruined his mother’s final years at the cottage by making her reluctant to go there.

“The Justice indicated, you know, that he (May) has already done everything that one could expect, including paying restitution,” Barrie said. Martin added the judge was persuaded that May “had learned his lesson, that he has got the supports,” making non-association terms in a probation order unnecessary. She also accepted May was “very remorseful” and “had learned his lesson.”

An Ontario Provincial Police news release which announced the charges said someone entered a property on Clear View Lane in South Bruce Peninsula around 9:12 p.m., a number of security cameras were taken and “the suspect was also observed causing damage to other items located on the property.”

Niagara Regional Police confirmed when the charges were laid they related to events involving May, an officer with nine years experience with Niagara police, while he was off duty. He was performing administrative duties when he was charged. After charges were laid, he was suspended with pay, Niagara police spokesman Const. Derek Watson said.

May will remain suspended with pay while the court decision is reviewed regarding any implications it may have concerning an internal Niagara Regional Police investigation of May’s conduct, Niagara Police Chief Jeff McGuire said in a statement Monday. That investigation will consider whether Police Services Act charges should be laid, Watson said.

32 “Obviously I remain very disappointed any time a member of the Niagara Regional Police Service is charged with a criminal offence,” McGuire said in the statement.

Ottawa has lowest impaired driving rate in Canada: StatsCan

BY CHLOÉ FEDIO, OTTAWA CITIZEN JANUARY 11, 2013

OTTAWA — While the number of impaired driving cases is rising in Canadian cities, Ottawa is bucking the national trend with the lowest rate in the country, according to the latest report by Statistics Canada.

There were 827 police-reported cases of impaired driving in Ottawa in 2011 — a 41-per-cent decrease compared with 2001.

But the Ottawa police officer who manages strategies to curb drunk driving said there were too many factors at play to draw conclusions from those statistics.

“The numbers are dropping, yes, but does that mean we’re not as good at catching impaired drivers? Does it mean there are less impaired drivers? Does it mean that we’re too busy to look for impaired drivers?” said Sgt. John Kiss.

More significant is that the number of accidents and subsequent deaths are down, Kiss said.

“That’s good news — that’s the bottom line,” he said.

Ottawa police stopped nearly 7,000 vehicles at

33 checkpoints in December, resulting in just three impaired driving charges. The number is consistent with previous years but Kiss said officers working at the checkpoints also noticed a responsible attitude from drivers and passengers.

“They remarked on the fact they were surprised by the large number of people that had clearly planned ahead and were either taking taxis or had designated drivers or used Operation Red Nose,” Kiss said.

The Statistics Canada report suggested that in 2011, Ottawa had a rate of 87 impaired driving cases per 100,000 people. Gatineau’s rate was 209 per 100,000, still well below the national average of 262. Kelowna, B.C. was the impaired driving capital with a rate of 583 cases per 100,000, followed closely by St. John’s, NL at 560.

Across the country, there were 90,277 reported cases — the vast majority for drunk driving and the remaining 1,886 for drug impairment. That represents a two-per-cent increase over 2010 — but a two-per-cent decrease over 10 years.

Ontario had the lowest rate among all provinces and territories — 130 — which represents a 28-per-cent decrease over 10 years. The only other province with a rate below the national average was Quebec with 211 cases per 100,000.

The report also detailed that:

• Drivers between the ages of 20 and 24 have the highest impaired driving rate, which declines slowly as age increases.

34

• Men represent 82 per cent of all cases.

• Drivers accused of impairment are found guilty in more than four of five cases.

• Half of impaired drivers are stopped by police between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.

City cop charged with breach Tuesday, January 8, 2013 8:23:00 EST PM Belleville Intelligencer

A Belleville police officer, who is facing criminal harassment charges, has breached his prior release conditions.

Eric Shorey, 34, was granted bail in Belleville provincial court, Tuesday, after being held for breaching his previous bail rules.

Court staff confirmed that Shorey was released on strict conditions, but were unable to provide specific details as the files were transferred to Picton provincial court where Shorey was set to make another appearance today.

It's not yet known when or how Shorey breached, but the officer did not have any other reports of violations since charges were laid against him last summer.

Belleville Police Chief Cory McMullan redirected all enquiries regarding Shorey's legal woes to the Prince Edward County OPP who spearheaded the investigation against him.

“That is an OPP investigation,” McMullan said in an interview Tuesday. “At this time he remains suspended from duty as a police officer.”

Shorey, of Belleville, was charged with criminal harassment and breach of trust in July. Prince Edward County OPP laid the charges after following up on a complaint that, between September 2010 and July 25, 2012, a Belleville police officer was criminally harassing a woman in the County.

Police say the information indicates that the officer was off-duty at the time of the incidents, but was accessing computer information through the Belleville Police Service.

Shorey was released on a promise to appear and an officer-in-charge undertaking with conditions to appear in court. He was suspended from active duty with pay. Police budget increases by 2.9% Tuesday, January 15, 2013 4:41:24 EST PM

35 Nugget.ca

NORTH BAY - Members of the North Bay Police Services Board voted unanimously to increase the proposed police operating budget by 2.9% to almost $16.3 million, although they questioned whether it's a goal they can meet.

“It's tight,” said board member Tiz Silveri.

She cautioned expenses could go over budget this year, and she asked the board at what point it would start looking at service levels to control costs.

Silveri is vice-president of clinical services at the North Bay Regional Health Centre and said she lives in this type of budget environment every day, adding it's costing more for organizations to operate.

Police board vice-chairman Bill Hagborg added it would only take one or two major occurrences to send the service operating in the red.

Hagborg also said he's concerned about the police training budget being slashed to $85,000 from $105,000.

It's likely management will send fewer officers to the Ontario Police College or other opportunities for training, although the union's concern is mandatory training for first aid, firearms and use of force.

The North Bay Police Association said starting this week it has agreed to a trial period of training members while they're on duty instead of paying them overtime to pursue training on their day off to not affect platoon strength.

“There's quite a bit of money saved right there,” association president Staff Sgt. Mike Tarini said after the board meeting on Tuesday.

“Part of the issue is you're pulling two guys off the road.”

That will become more difficult during the summer with more calls for service, he said.

“The association is working with management to try to see if there's any savings in the overall operation. We have a good relationship with the administration and we want to continue to work with them to come up with a solution,” Tarini said.

“We're all citizens of North Bay. We're all taxpayers.”

The operating budget accepted at Tuesday's meeting shaves $317,162 off the initial budget presented last month which proposed a 4.9% budget increase to $16.5-million. That was met with opposition from board members Mayor Al

36 McDonald and Deputy Mayor Sean Lawlor who called on the service to reduce its costs.

The municipal tax levy increase currently sits at around 2%, although the city budget isn't finalized.

About 90% of the police operating budget accounts for overtime as well as contract negotiated wages and benefits.

The board on Tuesday passed a resolution to accept a 3% salary increase for 2013 for the 94 sworn officers and 40 civilians employed by the service.

Total salaries are expected to cost $11.1 million in 2013 compared to $10.5 million last year.

The operating budget's remaining 10% pays for areas including administration, emergency law enforcement, maintenance, equipment and vehicles.

The revised operating budget shows cuts in many of those areas as well as overtime to lower the budget increase to 2.9% instead of 4.9%.

Personal injury offences, such as sex assaults, are the types of investigations that may lead to overtime when additional resources are needed within 24 to 48 hours after the incident, said Chief Paul Cook.

There may be other unexpected law enforcement expenses such as the visit last year from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Cook said, adding Idle No More protests in other communities are impacting police budgets.

“It's going to be a challenge for us to achieve those numbers, but it's a realistic budget and we've worked hard to achieve the number that was accepted by the board today,” Cook said.

Could a Windsor-Essex regional police force lower costs? Windsor Police chief says Police Act dictates his department have certain services not required in county CBC News Posted: Jan 15, 2013 11:01 AM ET Taxpayers in Windsor pay more per capita for policing than all other parts of Essex county.

According to statistics Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara provided CBC News, Windsor residents paid $370 per capita for policing.

That number will now grow. An arbitrator decided Tuesday that Windsor police be given an 11.59 per cent raise over four years.

37 McNamara said Tecumseh pays approximately $200 per capita. Kingsville and Lakeshore pay $150. All three communities are policed by the OPP.

McNamara bases his numbers on information provided to him by Statistics Canada and municipal websites.

According to Windsor Police Chief Al Frederick, Windsor's costs per capita are comparable to cities of similar size and that have their own police force.

Frederick said the Police Act is partially responsible for higher municipal policing costs.

The act dictates that a city like Windsor have the following:

Tactical team. Marine unit. Canine unit. Identification services. "It tells me that I have to have all those specialty units that are very expensive," Frederick said. "I have to have those things and they cost money."

The idea of regional policing has been floated. Under that arrangement, services would share resources with those who don't have as much.

County shares OPP services Communities such as Tecumseh, Lakeshore and Essex all have contracts with the OPP. They are not governed by the same set of rules as the city and don't have the same have the same resources.

The idea is that if the city and county joined forces, one dedicated police service for all of Windsor and Essex County would cost less and benefit everyone.

Last week, for example, the OPP had to call a tactical response unit from London to deal with what police anticipated would be an armed standoff in Comber, east of Windsor.

Frederick said if they were part of a regional force, those services would have been closer and response time would have been shorter.

"We have a marine unit here, locally, where those communities would not. They would not have tactical support. They would not have canine support," Frederick explained. "These services are already here for immediate deployment. So for the effectiveness of the service, I think you see the great benefits of regionalization."

County has little interest in regional police Essex Mayor Ron McDermott said happy with the service provided by the OPP but would be willing to consider regional policing if the city could make a good business case for it.

38 In Tecumseh, Mayor Gary McNamara doubts shared policing would make financial sense.

He said with the current OPP contract, his constituents get all the same services that are provided by the Windsor police but don't have to pay full price for them.

"We still have a call centre but we pool it with the province. We have a marine unit we can draw from. We have a canine unit, street gang unit, all of those," McNamara said. "We pool those resources. So instead of having a full-fledged canine department - and have to pay it - 365 days a year, we share with our neighbours and have that capability."

McNamara said crisis response time isn't an issue. He pointed to the Goderich tornado as an example.

"They, within minutes, had over 200 officers available to a small community," he said. "We have those capabilities here as well."

The idea of a regional police force has been raised at Windsor council, but it's often dropped because of lack of interest from their county counterparts.

The cost of the OPP service is also going up. McNamara said it's risen by 15 per cent in five years.

If the costs continue to rise, a regional police force may become more appealing.

Sudbury police probe allegation against Thunder Bay officer First Nations parent complained about Thunder Bay officer after incident at youth hockey tournament Jody Porter CBC News Posted: Jan 17, 2013 1:32 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 17, 2013 2:28 PM ET For the second time in less than a month, Thunder Bay police are being investigated for the way one of its officers treated a First Nations youth.

OPP launched an investigation Jan. 3 after a First Nation student reported that he had been picked up by Thunder Bay police and abandoned in a rural area outside city limits.

Now, Greater Sudbury Police have been called in to investigate a complaint about an off-duty officer’s "altercation" with a First Nations boy and his father at a hockey tournament.

“I experienced, I guess, racism for the first time in my life,” Kelvin Redsky said at a community safety meeting in Thunder Bay on Jan. 15.

39 The meeting was organized by the Nishnawbe Aski Nation to deal with what Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler called the “broken relationship” between Aboriginal people in the city and the Thunder Bay police.

Redsky spoke during the open microphone session of the meeting. He didn’t go into detail about what happened because he didn’t want to name names, he said.

“It really hurt me when that happened to my son,” he said. “And it happened from the Thunder Bay police who was off duty.”

The meeting's facilitator, city councillor Rebecca Johnson, discouraged Redsky from saying any more. She interrupted him and suggested he talk to police officers after the meeting.

“I’ve done that,” Redsky said. “I haven’t had anything done.”

At the meeting, Redsky said Sudbury police were investigating the incident.

After calls from CBC News, on Jan. 16, Thunder Bay police issued a news release.

“The Sudbury Regional Police Service [now called Greater Sudbury Police] is investigating a complaint by a Thunder Bay parent regarding an alleged altercation involving an off-duty Thunder Bay Police Service officer,” it stated.

Thunder Bay Police executive officer Chris Adams said Police Chief JP Levesque called in the Sudbury police so the investigation would be "transparent."

“The allegation is that a young man who was involved in the [hockey] tournament and his father got into an altercation with the officer,” Adams told CBC News. “The officer's actions are under investigation now.”

The officer in question is now on administrative duties while the incident is under investigation, Adams added.

Police, psychiatrist improve response to mental health calls Mental health concerns being dealt with on scene, not in emergency rooms, psychiatrist says CBC News Posted: Jan 17, 2013 7:23 AM ET Last Updated: Jan 17, 2013 5:19 A pilot project in Ottawa teams a doctor with police officers to reduce the number of calls for police that result in people with mental-health concerns either being sent to emergency rooms or being arrested.

The newly formed team is made up of one psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Boyles, and two medical residents who work and ride along with four officers with the Ottawa police mental health unit.

40

The Ottawa Hospital and the Ottawa Police Service began the one-year pilot project in July to test whether having a doctor on site would improve situations where police handle mental health issues and whether it would help streamline the process of getting help for patients.

Many police services across the country have mobile health teams that pair police with a nurse or social worker, but the Ottawa unit is believed to be the first where a doctor sits in the cruiser.

When the team responds to a call, the officer has access to police records on a certain address or person, while Boyles has access to a patient's medical records. The pair communicates what they learn before responding, to give them a more complete picture of the patient, but none of that information is documented.

Boyles, who normally works in the emergency room at The Ottawa Hospital, said hospital emergency rooms are overburdened dealing with patients who have mental health concerns.

"There's so much that comes to an emergency room that might be better handled in the community," said Boyles. "So if we could do that at the time, before police arrive, then it sort of changes the trajectory of what's going on that would be better for patients, and families but also for police."

Normally when police are required to escort someone to hospital, two officers could end up spending from two to as many as eight hours in the emergency room waiting for a doctor to see that person, said Const. Stéphane Quesnel, one of the officers participating in the project.

The officer said a patient needs to be monitored but the long wait times in emergency rooms is difficult.

"It feels like babysitting at a certain point … you're no longer really doing the job of a police officer," said Quesnel, who worries numerous hours accompanying patients lets down his fellow officers.

"It becomes frustrating for the officers and for the patient," he added.

Faster help, fewer emergency room patients By having a doctor on site when police meet people, the process of getting them help is much quicker, said Boyles.

"One day, we had four calls in a row where forms had been issued that required them to see a doctor and all four of those people did not need to be brought to hospital," said Boyles.

"Some had doctors who I liaised with, some we hooked up with resources that they could carry on getting some help. But I think that day it struck me that this is

41 good for patients, it’s good for the hospital and it’s very good for police and everybody was winning," he said.

Const. Stéphane Quesnel, left, and Dr. Peter Boyles, right, team up to help improve police response to calls involving mental health concerns. (CBC) In one instance since the pilot launched, Boyles said he and Quesnel were able to see a person with a severe mental health issue who had barricaded themselves in their home. The two men helped get the person admitted into a hospital in about an hour.

"When we arrived at the scene there were five police cruisers, two paramedics, lots of bodies, and no one really understood [the situation]. They knew the person was ill but didn't understand the illness," the doctor said.

Ottawa police respond to more than 4,000 calls involving the Mental Health Act each year, but they believe there are about 20 times more calls a year with a mental health component.

Ottawa police did not have updated statistics for the program. The force did say, over a 25-day period in October, officers and psychiatrists dealt with approximately 65 calls with only five requiring police to apprehend a person and bring them to the emergency room.

Do you think a psychiatrist responding to a 911 call is a good way to decrease the number of emergency room patients and arrests? (Poll Closed) Yes 76.96% (578 votes)

No 23.04% (173 votes)

Mayor admits failure in keeping Thunder Bay safe Keith Hobbs says he's still learning about safety concerns of First Nations people CBC News Posted: Jan 16, 2013 9:31 AM ET Last Updated: Jan 16, 2013 12:22 PM ET Read 1 comments1 More than 200 people attended a community safety forum in Thunder Bay Tuesday night to address concerns raised by two recent incidents involving police and First Nations people.

Recently, city police officers were accused of stranding a First Nations student in the cold weather on the outskirts of town. And police are now investigating a sexual assault against a First Nations woman that is being called a possible hate crime.

42 Acting detective inspector Don Lewis told the crowd he couldn't get into details of these cases, but said the "abduction, sex-assault and, as it's reported, a hate- motivated crime" is being handled as a "major case" by police. Five criminal investigation officers are dedicated full-time to it.

Mayor Keith Hobbs admitted at the public meeting that his plan to make Thunder Bay a safer place has failed. He told the crowd that safety is something easier said than done.

“When I ran for mayor two years ago, I ran on a platform of safe communities and I'll tell you right now that plank has been an absolute failure,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs, a former police officer, said he's still learning about the safety concerns of First Nations people who make up about 1 in 5 residents in Thunder Bay.

“We have 20,000 aboriginal people living in my city,” he said. “Those are all my citizens and I want to protect them.”

‘Garbage thown at them’ But many at the meeting said they aren't feeling protected.

More than a dozen families in remote communities chose not to send their children back to school in the city this semester, said Norma Kejick, executive director of the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, which runs Dennis Frankly Cromarty First Nations High School in Thunder Bay.

“[It’s] sad because some of those students have nowhere else to go to school and so some of those students are back home in their community doing nothing towards their education,” she said.

Kejick said that the recent assaults and complaints are an escalation in a long history of bad experiences.

“Our students have said they've had garbage thrown at them while they wait for busses,” she said. “The garbage and the swear words and the racist remarks are made while they're waiting for the bus right outside their own school.”

After the meeting, non-Aboriginal university student AJ Haapa said that doesn't surprise him.

“I grew up here, born and raised,” he said. “There's endemic racism here, there's no doubt about it. It's at the dinner table, it's in the classroom walls, it's like a racist matrix.”

Haapa said he hoped the gathering will be a first step toward ending it.

‘Very disappointed' But not everyone felt the two-hour meeting was a success.

43 People were still lined up at the microphones hoping to share their ideas for making Thunder Bay safer when the facilitators ended the meeting. Thunder Bay resident Paul Francis said everyone who wanted to speak should have been given time.

“You can't open up an event like this and just silence people out,” he said. “So I'm very, very disappointed."

Francis said First Nations leaders are identified by their ability to listen to their communities — something he didn’t see at the meeting.

“There's a real issue of people being scared in the city and that wasn't addressed,” he said.

Most people agreed that the meeting was only the beginning of a much-needed discussion about safety that cuts across cultures.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler led the push to hold the meeting and was happy to see so many people attend.

“I think that tonight was a great start,” he said.

“I regret that not everyone had the opportunity to speak but we will make sure there are opportunities for them in the future.”

Fiddler said he'll look at planning another meeting soon.

QUEBEC

Quebec pleased as Supreme Court ruling bolsters drunk-driving laws RHÉAL SÉGUIN QUEBEC — The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Jan. 17 2013, 8:26 PM EST

Quebec Justice Minister Bertrand St-Arnaud is ecstatic over a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that approved the seizure of vehicles belonging to repeat drunk drivers.

Mr. St-Arnaud said Thursday’s ruling will give prosecutors added impetus to demand tougher sentences in the province’s fight against drunk driving.

In a case involving repeat offender Alphide Manning, who was arrested near Baie Comeau in April, 2010, the seven Supreme Court judges unanimously overturned two lower court rulings denying the Crown the right to confiscate his vehicle.

44

The lower court had ruled that confiscating the vehicle was too harsh a penalty for Mr. Manning, who pleaded guilty to two counts of impaired driving and was sentenced to a total of 17 months in jail. But the Supreme Court found that, given Mr. Manning’s previous convictions for impaired driving, it was appropriate to require that he forfeit his vehicle.

“We are not satisfied that the impact of the order of forfeiture sought by the Crown was disproportionate,” the decision said.

The judges said Mr. Manning’s record had to be considered.

“The trial judge erroneously emphasized Mr. Manning’s personal circumstances and failed to give appropriate weight … to Mr. Manning’s criminal record, including five convictions on alcohol-related driving offences and three for breaches of probation orders or undertakings,” the judges said in decision.

Mr. St-Arnaud said the ruling is a message that lower court judges should closely examine repeat offenders’ criminal records in determining whether to confiscate a vehicle and give less weight to the impact such a sentence would have on their personal circumstances.

“Today, the Supreme Court has given prosecutors the green light to demand that vehicles be confiscated. And they are also telling judges that they should also take into account a repeat offender’s criminal record,” Mr. St-Arnaud said.

The minister said the ruling gives him the ammunition to enforce directives he outlined on Wednesday for Crown prosecutors to demand tougher sentences against repeat drunk drivers. Mr. St-Arnaud said that after three convictions, prosecutors should ask judges to order an offender’s vehicle confiscated.

The Criminal Code includes provisions that allow this. But the Justice Minister said Quebec courts have been reluctant to impose the sentence. Mr. Arnaud said he hopes attitudes will change because of the Supreme Court ruling.

Former Liberal justice minister and victims right activist Marc Bellemare agrees. He said if repeat offenders cannot show that impounding their vehicle would be unfair and disproportionate, judges may now be more inclined to order seizure.

“The minister needs to hold his ground and seek the enforcement of his directive to have a repeat offender’s vehicle confiscated after a third conviction,” Mr. Bellemare said in a TVA television interview. “If they [repeat offenders] don’t have a vehicle, it complicates their lives considerably.”

Mr. St-Arnaud said on Wednesday he will press Ottawa to amend the criminal code to further crack down on drunk driving. He wants repeat offenders to be classified as “dangerous offenders” along with the worst criminals in the country. Mr. St-Arnaud will also demand Ottawa review the Criminal Code to impose tougher jail sentences for repeat offenders.

45 Montreal police form integrity squad to root out corruption

By Rene Bruemmer, Gazette Civic Affairs Reporter January 11, 2013

MONTREAL - Calling it the first in-house police investigative unit of its kind in Canada, Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum announced this morning the formation of a new anti-corruption unit made up mainly of Montreal police officers able to investigate all aspects of city affairs. Issuing a warning to all “profiteers and schemers” that attempt to swindle taxpayers through rigged construction contracts or other means, Applebaum, accompanied by Montreal Police Chief Marc Parent, said the new 20-member squad dubbed EPIM - Escouade de protection de l’intégrité municipale, or squad to protect municipal integrity - will have access to all aspects of civic affairs. All doors and files, he said would be open.

At the same time, Applebaum revealed that investigators from the provincial Charbonneau Commission investigating corruption in the construction industry were visiting Montreal’s city hall Friday afternoon to speak with him. Applebaum said he did not know what issues the investigators would raise, but said the visit was a normal part of the investigative process and he would furnish all information requested.

EPIM is supposed to be formed in the next weeks. Parent estimated it would cost roughly $3 million in its first year, given the cost of establishing headquarters and paying staff. The new unit will be autonomous and independent, with carte blanche to investigate all dossiers of the city of Montreal, Applebaum said. Asked whether the public could have confidence in an investigative unit mandated to police the city made up of police who are employees of the city, Applebaum reiterated that the squad was independent and answered to no one but itself.

“With the adoption of this squad, I’m sending a clear message to all the profiteers and schemers who wish to steal our tax contributions: be warned. You now have a new obstacle in front of you,” Applebaum said.

The new squad has the mandate to assure the integrity of the administration of the city of Montreal, particularly in the matters of issuing of contracts. Details from media reports and the Charbonneau Commission have unveiled allegations of widespread collusion among contractors bidding on public works projects, of which the city issues $1.5 billion a year, aided in many cases by corrupt civil servants, engineers and political parties who obtained hundreds of thousands in kickbacks.

Parent said the squad would work in co-operation with the provincial anti- corruption squad composed of Sureté du Québec police officers known as UPAC, as well as with investigators from the Charbonneau Commission. It is also expected to put in place new strategies and tools to limit corruption in city

46 contracts. Investigators will also go out in the field to construction projects and have the power to investigate companies.

Applebaum said the squad would investigate any activities or contracts that could be corrupt, not just in the construction field, noting that it would look at anything from the awarding of computer technology contracts to the price of firefighters’ clothing.

Opposition party members welcomed the news, stressing that they had been asking for such a squad for years, and praised Applebaum for finally creating it. While many questioned whether it is coming far too late, given the fact corruption in the construction industry appears to have been widespread since at least the late 1980s, inflating the cost of city contracts by as much as 40 per cent, Projet Montréal leader Richard Bergeron said any measure like this would pay for itself by making it more difficult for corruption to fester. Corruption will never be completely cured, he said, but the new squad is one more tool that will make it more difficult to encroach.

Quebec to crack down on repeat impaired driving offenders CBC News Posted: Jan 16, 2013 10:33 AM ET Quebec Justice Minister Bertrand St-Arnaud has ordered Crown prosecutors to get tougher on impaired drivers, and he wants those caught driving under the influence three times or more to spend more time behind bars.

"We want to send a clear message: impaired driving is a social scourge that compromises public safety," he said. "People who repeatedly commit these infractions represent a very serious danger."

Penalties for impaired driving are covered by the federal Criminal Code.

While St-Arnaud does not hold the power to change the law, he can send directives to Quebec's Crown prosecutors with regards to prosecution and recommendations for sentences.

At a news conference in Quebec City, St-Arnaud said he is urging Crown prosecutors to argue against early release for impaired drivers serving time behind bars.

He also called on the federal government to increase sentences and toughen the Criminal Code provisions when it comes to impaired driving.

He said one in three deadly car crashes in Quebec involve impaired driving.

Coalition Avenir Québec's justice critic Jacques Duchesneau said the government's intentions are good, but the he believes impaired drivers won't be scared off by the threat of more jail time.

47 The announcement comes following two fatal hit-and-runs in Quebecover the weekend.

NEW BRUNSWICK Saint John can’t use bylaws for prostitution crackdown Police commission says using traffic bylaws would not be ‘feasible, lawful or ethical’ CBC News Posted: Jan 10, 2013 2:21 PM AT Coun. Susan Fullerton said the prostitution in Saint John is ‘untenable.’

Saint John's Police Commission has notified city council it cannot use local bylaws to remove sex trade workers from the uptown area.

A letter from the commission to councillors notes that using traffic or sidewalk bylaws for such a purpose would not be "feasible, lawful or ethical.”

In November, Ward 2 Coun. Susan Fullerton raised the idea and city council voted to ask the police to find ways to limit the sex trade.

When she heard of the police commission's letter on Wednesday, Fullerton said the situation with sex workers is "untenable.”

She said she would have no further comment for the time being.

In November, Fullerton said the sex trade is hurting the city’s image.

She also pointed out that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani used similar tactics on squeegee kids and panhandlers.

About 50 people held a protest outside of Saint John’s city hall in November in protest to Fullerton’s idea.

Saint John has many bylaws already on its books that could be used to stymie the city’s sex trade.

The city has a bylaw prohibiting people from selling anything on the sidewalk without permission and from conducting business with anyone in a motor vehicle.

Police report dismissing sex-trade crackdown lauded

48 AIDS Saint John official says Coun. Susan Fullerton's proposal was misguided CBC News Posted: Jan 16, 2013 9:18 AM AT Saint John's Police Commission has advised city council it cannot use local bylaws to remove sex-trade workers from the uptown area. (CBC) Saint John Police Chief Bill Reid’s conclusion that using local laws to crackdown on the sex trade would not be feasible or lawful is being applauded by an AIDS Saint John official.

Coun. Susan Fullerton had proposed the city police use existing city bylaws to remove sex trade workers in Saint John’s uptown area.

Fullerton won support for a motion that requested police find ways to limit the sex trade.

The councillor's idea didn't win as much support with the public. Protesters demonstrated against the idea in November and earlier this week the city’s police chief reported that using traffic or sidewalk bylaws for such a purpose would not be "feasible, lawful or ethical.”

Coun. Susan Fullerton put forward the motion asking police to find a way to crackdown on the city's sex trade. (Facebook) Julie Dingwell, the executive director of AIDS Saint John, a group that works with sex-trade workers, said the proposal was misguided.

"You can't legislate an addict to not be an addict,” she said.

Dingwell said the police chief’s report correctly observes that police would be targeting the city's most vulnerable citizens.

She said such an initiative would only victimize people living in extreme poverty, who often suffer from mental illness or addiction.

"We can't allow a group of marginalized people who are seriously ill, in many cases, mentally ill and physically ill, why would we want to pick on them,” she said.

Saint John Deputy Mayor Shelley Rinehart was absent from council when the original motion to clamp down on sex-trade workers was made.

But Rinehart said she doesn’t think it was a good idea.

"Just moving them to another location so we don't have to see them is typically not the solution. We really do need to deal with what the root cause of that problem is and try to fix it,” she said.

The police chief's report is on the agenda for discussion at next Monday's meeting.

49 NOVA SCOTIA Police chief to urge integration at national summit Halifax Regional Police chief heading to Ottawa to discuss policing costs CBC News Posted: Jan 15, 2013 7:20 AM AT Halifax Regional Police Chief Jean-Michel Blais says all options are open to discussion as he attends meetings in Ottawa designed to address the increasing cost of policing in Canada.

Blais is one of dozens of police chiefs, politicians from all levels of government and members of civilian oversight bodies who will attend the two-day national Summit on the Economics of Policing to look for ways to deal with Canada's newest crime-fighting crisis — money.

While national crime rates are falling, the cost of policing continues to climb and in some jurisdictions, the cost has doubled over the last 15 years. Municipalities are struggling to pay the bill.

Blais said he recognizes the problem that presents.

"We have to be looking at all possibilities when it comes to optimization of the policing dollar that we have here," he told CBC News.

Blais only had to walk a few metres from his old job as the Halifax Regional Municipality's top Mountie to become its police chief — Halifax is the only city in Canada patrolled by a municipal police force and the RCMP.

The offices for the city's two top cops sit side by side on the top floor of the police station on Gottingen Street. Blais is the first man to sit in both — he retired from the RCMP to become the municipal chief last year, taking over for Chief Frank Beazley.

Policing is a $92-million business in Halifax annually, if the criminals co-operate and everything goes according to budget.

In a city the size of the Halifax Regional Municipality, that doesn't always happen. There is chronic drug abuse, gun problems and in 2011, had the second highest homicide rate in the country per 100,000 people, according to Statistics Canada.

Marriage between forces in 1996 Blais said the city is a policing and budgeting challenge.

"It's larger than Prince Edward Island. It's slightly smaller than Toronto, yet it only has about an eighth of the population of Toronto," he said. "That makes policing expensive in of of itself."

50 The marriage between the RCMP and the Halifax Regional Police force came after a long courtship. It started in 1996 when the province amalgamated the municipalities that now make up the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Before that, the RCMP patrolled Halifax County while municipal forces served the old cities of Halifax, Dartmouth and Bedford.

The three municipal forces merged in 1996 to form the Halifax Regional Police force but by 2003, the RCMP and Halifax Regional Police were still in separate police bunkers. That's when major crime investigators from both sides began working side by side in one office.

Now, there is an integrated traffic unit that has RCMP and Halifax Regional Police officers driving each other's police cruisers. There is a joint communications system as well as other smaller combined units.

Blais conceded the merged service is not the cheapest, but said he believes it provides a better value for the dollar. That's the math he'll try to explain during a panel discussion at the federal summit in Ottawa.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND Police officer guilty of refusing breathalyzer CBC News Posted: Jan 17, 2013 10:52 AM AT Last Updated: Jan 17, 2013 A Summerside police officer has been sentenced to five days in jail for refusing to provide a breathalyzer sample.

Cpl. Dave Allen Murphy was charged following a Nov. 5 accident at the corner of Central Street and Pope Road. A Summerside woman who was driving the other vehicle was taken to the Prince County Hospital and later released.

In Summerside provincial court Thursday, Murphy's lawyer told the court, Murphy was on leave at the time, being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. Murphy has been with the force for 22 years.

Personnel Changes to Improve Community Policing 2013-01-14

The City of Charlottetown and Police Services are pleased to announce some personnel changes within the department. Three Police officers have been promoted to the rank of Sergeant and four to the rank of Corporal within the Uniform Patrol Section.

The promotions have allowed for adjustments to be made in Community Policing. Each of the new Corporals and Sergeants will be assigned to oversee

51 Community Policing initiatives in areas such as schools and seniors’ units in specific zones within the City.

The new Sergeants include Shane Carr, Michelle O’Donnell, and Walter Vessey. The new Corporals are Dean Field, John Flood, David Pound and Chris Watts.

Sgt. Carr joined the Charlottetown Police Services in 1983. Over the course of his career, he has been involved in the Uniform Patrol and Forensic Identification sections. Sgt. Michelle O’Donnell is the first female member of the Police Services to be promoted to the rank of Sergeant. She joined Police Services in 1995 and has been involved in the Uniform Patrol and Major Crime sections. Sgt. Vessey became a member of the City Police in 1990 serving in Uniform Patrol and Drug sections, and most recently, as a K-9 Handler.

Cpl. Field became part of the Charlottetown Police in 1995 and has been working in Uniform Patrol and Traffic Services sections. Cpl. Flood also joined the department in 1995 and has been working in Uniform Patrol and was seconded for a year as an instructor at the Atlantic Police Academy. Cpl. Watts joined City Police in 1996 and has been working in Uniform Patrol and Street Crime sections. Cpl. Pound has been working in the Uniform Patrol section over the course of his career with Charlottetown Police Services, which he joined in 1995.

"One of the reasons Charlottetown is a great place to live and work is because it’s a very safe community, which is a testament to the work of our Police Service," said Mayor Clifford Lee. "Our Protective and Emergency Services Committee and our City Police work hard for the citizens of Charlottetown. I not only want to thank them for their continued efforts, but I also want to congratulate the seven officers who have been promoted and recognized for their contributions to Police Services and to this City."

Zone 1, which includes a portion or all of Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4, will be the responsibility of Sgt. Vessey and Cpl. Watts. Zone 2, which includes Wards 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9 will be the responsibility of Sgt. O’Donnell and Cpl. Flood. Zone 3 will be the responsibility of Sgt. Tom Clow and Cpl. Field, and includes Wards 8, 9 and 10. Zone 4 includes Wards 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and will be the responsibility of Sgt. Carr and Cpl. Pound.

"Having Police supervisors responsible for the oversight of Community Policing initiatives in specific sections of the City makes very good sense," said Councillor David MacDonald, Chair of the City’s Protective and Emergency Services Committee. "This oversight responsibility will also give the new Sergeants and Corporals a chance to connect with the neighbourhoods, and develop a good understanding of the unique issues in the Zones and Wards."

"The promotions for these Sergeants and Corporals are the result of a lengthy process involving a written exam, oral interviews and other testing requirements," said Police Chief Paul Smith. "We have the utmost confidence in their abilities and wish them well as they embark upon a new segment in their respective careers at the supervisory level."

52 The new Sergeants and Corporals were recognized by the Mayor, Council and senior members of Charlottetown Police Services at the January Council meeting Monday night.

NEWFOUNDLAND

NATIONAL Canadian police, military honoured for bravery in aftermath of Haiti earthquake Sidhartha Banerjee, Global News Thursday, January 10, 2013 4:50 PM

MONTREAL - Claude Cuillerier remembers being in a second-storey office at the United Nations police headquarters in Port-au-Prince when the floor suddenly collapsed, trapping colleagues in the rubble below.

Haiti's devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 had just struck.

As the Montreal police sergeant and a colleague from Nigeria made it outside, they took in the chaos as well as the scope of the destruction.

"What it reminded me of was like in New York City after 9-11 with the huge white plumes of dust," said Cuillerier, 51, who teaches at Quebec's police academy.

But then adrenalin and his professional training kicked in and the 24-year veteran fetched a carjack to help rescuers free colleagues. Cuillerier himself went into the rubble, using his hands to rummage through concrete to help pull out survivors with the risk of further collapse imminent.

That selflessness resulted in Cuillerier and 13 of his colleagues being rewarded on Thursday with the RCMP Commissioner's Commendation for Bravery for their life-saving efforts following the January 2010 earthquake. The third anniversary of the temblor is Saturday.

They were recognized for putting their own lives at risk to rescue people trapped in crumbling buildings, providing first-aid and security and escorting rescue teams.

The 14 men — 13 police officers from Ottawa, Montreal, Saguenay, Quebec provincial police and the RCMP and one member of the Canadian Forces — received the accolade from RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson.

Michel Martin, a retired Quebec provincial police inspector, was in charge of the Canadian contingent when the quake struck.

53

Speaking on Thursday, Martin said he wants to ensure no one ever forgets the people of Haiti as well as two fellow RCMP officers who died during the earthquake — Sgt. Mark Gallagher and Supt. Doug Coates.

Many were at police headquarters or in their residences in Port-au-Prince when the quake hit.

"Thankfully not everything crumbled," Martin said. "And in the moments after the earthquake, Canadian police officers went into crumbling homes and buildings to save people."

Martin said there are no words to describe the lengths to which his people went. He told them they can count themselves among a select group of people — those who risk their own lives to save others.

Many still harbour scars from what they went through. Cuillerier, who served twice in Haiti and loved his international experiences, says he won't return to the Caribbean nation out of respect for his family.

"They lived through the earthquake from a distance and it took several hours to reach them," Cuillerier said. "I promised them that I would not go back there again."

Others still find it difficult to talk about what they lived through in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Serge Boulianne, a retired Montreal police detective who served 28 years on the force, had just left the building when the quake hit. He ran back inside to help locate survivors and help them escape. He also used a ladder to save many people who were trapped.

Boulianne recalled that after the quake, there was silence. "No dogs, no birds, no wind. nothing," Boulianne said. Then the screams could be heard.

Boulianne spent about 20 days in Haiti after the quake. He was tasked with ferrying rescue teams from the airport to different sites where they could help. Difficult decisions had to be made on the ground.

"When you're a police officer, you decide to help people, you don't decide who lives and who dies," Boulianne said. "But that was the most difficult thing to decide: those people we can help and those we weren't able to help."

Boulianne, who survived a cancer diagnosis at age 40 and the earthquake in his 50s, called it a career recently. He now builds homes for a living.

He sees himself as someone who lost friends in the earthquake and who did his job. But others are more deserving of recognition, he said.

54 "They recognized what we did (today) and I'm very appreciative of that," Boulianne said.

"But I think the real heroes are the Haitian people."

International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino attended Thursday's event but did not field questions from reporters. The former police officer said the individual acts of bravery and self-sacrifice distinguished the 14 men being honoured.

"Your willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice epitomizes all that is good and noble about policing and military service," Fantino told the men and their families at RCMP headquarters in Montreal.

The minister has been under heavy fire in recent days for saying Canada would freeze aid for new projects in Haiti.

Fantino said last week he was disappointed by the lack of progress in the country and wanted to find a better way to help Haiti's reconstruction.

Those comments earned him rebukes from the U.S. State Department and the United Nations this week.

Canada's police forces have to innovate or cut back, Toews tells summit KIM MACKRAEL Ottawa — The Globe and Mail Published Wednesday, Jan. 16 2013, 10:23 AM EST

Police chiefs from across Canada are being urged to look at radical new approaches to public safety as they struggle to meet growing demands to keep their budgets in check.

Speaking at the start of a national summit on the economics of policing on Wednesday morning, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews suggested the current policing system is unsustainable and said local forces will need to consider ways to reform it.

“I’ll be blunt,” Mr. Toews said. “Police services face two options: They can do nothing and eventually be forced to cut drastically, as we have seen in some countries. Or they can be proactive, get ahead of the curve and have greater flexibility in designing and implementing both incremental and meaningful structural reforms.”

Many local police forces are going through profound upheaval as they work to address public expectations to provide a broader range of services at a lower cost. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair faces a budget freeze that he has warned could result in fewer officers on the streets. Police in Vancouver are looking to fill hire more civilians to do certain kinds of police work, and the Waterloo Regional

55 Police Service is piloting a new scheduling system to better match staffing levels with call volumes throughout the day.

Mike Cunningham, chief constable for the Staffordshire Police in Britain, was part of a panel dealing with privatization and civilian recruitment at the summit on Wednesday.

His force is losing hundreds of officers and civilian staff as a result of sweeping budget cuts. Mr. Cunningham said he has focused on sharing resources with neighbouring police forces and local public services. Staffordshire authorities have created a hub to host local services for vulnerable children, a move the chief constable said saves money and contributes to better service.

Police have also contracted out care for people in custody, a move Mr. Cunningham said has worked well so far. And the service has moved toward recruiting more civilian staff and volunteers to work with full-time police officers.

“We need to find radically different ways of delivering the service,” he said in an interview outside the summit. “Because it is insufficient just to say we will carry on working the same way but with fewer people, because there are so many fewer.”

Vancouver Police chief Jim Chu, who was in Ottawa for the summit, said his force is looking to hire staff who can take on low-level police work such as dealing with some bylaw offences, guarding some crime scenes and dealing with lost property. “That can free up regular officers so they’re more available for the more important calls and work that they can do,” he said.

He said police forces should look for opportunities to work with social agencies – which could become increasingly challenging as social services face budget constraints.

“I used to call us the social service agency of last resort. Now with the cutbacks to all the other agencies, we’re the social service agency of first resort. Dealing with homelessness, dealing with street disorder, dealing with the products of poverty,” Mr. Chu said, adding that police are not the best-placed to deal with those issues.

At the same time, the police-reported crime rate in Canada dropped to the lowest level in nearly four decades in 2011, according to Statistics Canada.

Mr. Toews has raised questions about the value of crime statistics in the past. But the Public Safety Minister acknowledged on Wednesday that the declining rate is an important consideration for police budgets.

“We’re seeing a shift in public expectations,” he said. “A decade ago the average Canadian readily accepted, almost without question, steady increases in police budgets. Today, however, there are increasing calls to demonstrate the value of the investments that all governments make in public services, including policing.”

56 The policing summit runs Wednesday and Thursday in Ottawa and includes police chiefs, officers, academics and government representatives from across Canada.

Supreme Court stays case against an abused wife who tried to hire a hit man

BY MIKE BLANCHFIELD, THE CANADIAN PRESS JANUARY 18, 2013 9:30 AM

OTTAWA - A Nova Scotia woman who tried to hire a hit man to kill her abusive husband is free after the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a extraordinary stay of proceedings in her emotional case.

The high court also raised serious questions about the conduct of the RCMP and Nova Scotia prosecutors, saying it is "disquieting" that the Mounties chose to mount a sting operation to arrest Nicole Ryan rather than respond to her husband's "reign of terror" over her.

Ryan was originally acquitted of counselling to commit murder in 2010, a decision that was upheld by Nova Scotia's appeal court. She was arrested in 2008 when she tried to hire an undercover RCMP officer to kill Michael Ryan — who had threatened to kill her and her daughter and burn their house down.

Technically, the Supreme Court granted the Crown appeal and overturned the acquittal, saying her defence of duress wasn't valid.

But they blocked any attempt by Nova Scotia prosecutors to re-try her.

By an 8-1 margin they said it would be unfair to subject her to a new trial and instituted a stay of proceedings.

"In our opinion, Ms. Ryan's case falls into the residual category of cases requiring a stay: it is an exceptional situation that warrants an exceptional remedy," the court ruled. "In the interests of justice, a stay of proceedings is required."

The court also highlighted the fact that the RCMP did not adequately respond to Ryan's numerous calls for help, which forced her to resort to attempting to hire a killer.

"The abuse which she suffered at the hands of Mr. Ryan took an enormous toll on her, as, no doubt, have these protracted proceedings, extending over nearly five years, in which she was acquitted at trial and successfully resisted a Crown appeal in the Court of Appeal," justices Louis LeBel and Thomas Cromwell wrote in the ruling.

57 "There is also the disquieting fact that, on the record before us, it seems that the authorities were much quicker to intervene to protect Mr. Ryan than they had been to respond to her request for help in dealing with his reign of terror over her."

The judgment avoided any comment on its precedent-setting 1990 battered woman's ruling, which allows abuse victims accused of killing to plead self- defence.

The ruling disappointed the interveners in the case — the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund — which had hoped the high court would address the self-defence issue.

"We still have a lack of clarity about the law of self-defence," said Kim Pate, executive director of the Fry society.

"It's still not clear what would the next woman be able to do, to defend herself? Should she just be shot, herself? Should she be murdered and her child murdered with her?"

University of Ottawa law professor Elizabeth Sheehy, a legal adviser for LEAF and the author of an upcoming book on battered women who have killed, said the ruling is a victory for Ryan, but sends a troubling message to abused women.

"It would have been nice if there was at least a sentence or two indicating that self-defence would have worked," she said.

"The negative message for battered women is that your actions are going to have to fit within a legal box in order to be excused and that's a worry."

Friday's ruling Ryan does not give Ryan what she was originally seeking when she tried to hire a hit man — protection for her daughter.

Her lawyer Joel Pink has told The Canadian Press that Michael Ryan and his girlfriend "took off with the daughter after the trial and before the decision" and "we have not heard from her since."

In their ruling the justices summarized the plight of the 115-pound Ryan during her marriage to the 230-pound ex-soldier.

LeBel and Cromwell noted that the trial judge accepted that Ryan's testimony about the abusive behaviour of her husband was, in fact, true.

"For example, Mr. Ryan's violent and threatening behaviour included outbursts at least once a week, where he would throw things at the respondent's head, physically assault her and threaten to kill her," the justices wrote.

"The respondent testified that Mr. Ryan often told her that he would kill her and their daughter if she ever tried to leave him."

58 On another occasion, Michael Ryan took his wife and daughter to a remote, forested spot and told them this was where he planned to bury their bodies.

Ryan's lawyer argued that his client called police at least nine times seeking protection from her husband.

Instead, the RCMP eventually arrested her in March 2008 after they sent an undercover officer to pose as the hit man that she was trying to hire to kill her husband.

The couple had separated and moved apart, but Ryan became terrified for her daughter's safety when her father began showing up at her school.

"While she had engaged the police and other agencies in an effort to assist her in the past, the evidence was that her problems were viewed as a 'civil matter'," the justices said.

"She felt so vulnerable that the phone call of the undercover police officer appeared to her as the solution to all her problems. On the basis of these findings, the trial judge found that the common law defence of duress applied and acquitted the accused."

In their ruling, the nine justices unanimously agreed that the duress defence was improperly applied at trial.

But rather than subject Ryan to a new trial, they ordered a stay of proceedings instead. One that point, one justice dissented.

Justice Morris Fish said a stay was not a proper legal remedy and that a new trial should have been ordered. Policing officials meet to discuss the future of policing in Canada

OTTAWA – January 17, 2013 — Officials from across Canada and abroad concluded two days of constructive discussions on reform and innovation of policing in Canada. The Summit on the Economics of Policing – Strengthening Canada's Policing Advantage – was a commitment made by Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) Ministers Responsible for Justice and Public Safety at their January 2012 meeting.

"This Summit has demonstrated our shared commitment to ensuring that policing services are delivered as effectively and efficiently as possible, while continuing to make the safety and security of all Canadians our top priority," said the Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety. "FPT Ministers have expressed a strong interest in tackling the increasing cost of policing and this meeting provided an opportunity to look at ways to do that."

59 The Summit is a key step in developing a shared agenda on policing reform and innovation. Discussions focused on three main themes: efficiencies within police services, new models of community safety, and efficiencies within the justice system. The Summit brought together representatives from all three levels of government, national police associations (namely, the Canadian Association of Police Boards, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Police Association), police leaders (including First Nations police services), frontline police officers, academics and speakers from the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

"Police officers perform an invaluable role and they do so with dedication and professionalism," said Minister Toews. "It is essential that all levels of government, police associations and services continue to work together to contain costs while strengthening policing in Canada."

Development of a shared forward agenda on policing will continue. The Government of Canada will further consult with other governments, police associations and services, and key stakeholders to ensure the plan reflects the realities of policing in Canada.

Toews pleased with RCMP gender action plan but offers few details

BY TOBI COHEN, POSTMEDIA NEWS JANUARY 15, 2013

OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Vic Toews says he has a “very good” relationship with Canada’s top cop and that the two are on the same page when it comes to tackling the RCMP’s gender bias problem.

Toews refused to speak to the specifics of a comprehensive action plan he demanded RCMP Comm. Bob Paulson produce by Dec. 11 in a tersely worded letter, but indicated he was happy with what he received last month.

“I didn’t want simply a re-hashing of what the problems are but I wanted what the solutions were and I’m quite satisfied with the approach that the commissioner has taken in the time I wanted him and I’m optimistic that we can continue to work on that file,” he said in an interview with Postmedia News.

Toews argued Bill C-42, the Enhancing RCMP Accountability Act now before the House of Commons at the report stage, will go a long way towards rectifying may of the complaints leveled against the force by female Mounties regarding sexual harassment and outlined in a recent gender-based audit.

60 The legislation deals with how the RCMP handles grievances, disciplinary and human resources issues. While some officers have raised concerns about the amount of power the bill gives the commissioner, Toews and Paulson have said the bill will modernize management procedures and restore public confidence in the RCMP.

“We believe that bill will, in fact, ensure that there is more efficient and effective policing and that officers who may in fact fall short of the standards we expect them to maintain will be brought to account in a much shorter period of time,” Toews said.

Toews demanded Paulson put forward a plan to combat gender bias shortly after the RCMP commissioner leaked details of a then not-yet-released audit that found a “clear, unassailable” bias against promoting females in the higher ranks, despite improvements in attracting more women to the force generally.

In his letter, Toews appeared to come down hard on Paulson for paying lip- service to the issue in the media before producing a concrete plan to deal with the lack of female representation.

On Tuesday, Toews argued his letter was not terse, but rather “very clear.”

“Our relationship is a very good one,” he said. “I’m quite pleased with the progress he’s been making in a very very difficult job . . . but I also want to make it very clear to him what my expectations are and indeed what the expectations are of the Canadian people when they’re dealing with the RCMP.”

It’s not clear exactly when the government will publicly release Paulson’s action plan.

RCMP failed to track internal misconduct for years List tracking serious cases had to be created from scratch, commissioner reveals after CBC News probe By Curt Petrovich, CBC News Posted: Jan 13, 2013 9:01 PM ET The head of the RCMP admitted that Canada’s national police force neglected to keep tabs on hundreds of cases of serious misconduct committed by Mounties across the country for years.

Commissioner Bob Paulson acknowledged that an access to information request by CBC News inadvertently revealed that not even senior leaders in the RCMP could say with confidence whether incidents of misconduct that include assaults, impaired driving and fraud were a problem in the force.

“You’re right,” said Paulson, who has been on the job just over a year. “The RCMP hadn't been tracking until I got here and now we are. We're tracking them all."

61

'These are all things that the RCMP are sworn to uphold and prevent — not participate in.' —Lawyer and former RCMP officer Walter Kostekyj The discovery that no one within the RCMP had a comprehensive list of Mounties who’d been disciplined, became obvious after CBC News asked for basic data between 2005 and 2008 that included offences and findings by internal adjudications boards.

CBC News submitted the request in November 2008. It was delivered four years later in November 2012. An officer who handled the file offered an embarrassed apology, and explained the delay was due to the list having to be created from scratch.

Serious problem in management Walter Kostekyj, a Vancouver lawyer and former RCMP officer himself, was astonished.

“How would they measure their training? How would they measure who they're selecting to be a police officer if they're not keeping track of who it is they're having problems with?”

Josh Paterson, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association called it irresponsible.

“The RCMP is an organization charged with keeping track of crime right across the country,” Paterson said.

“And yet within their own organization, they had no way, short of spending four years pulling this research together, knowing the rate at which their officers were committing very serious misconduct.

“Senior leaders in Ottawa, and here in British Columbia would not have been able to say with any confidence, do we have a problem or do we not have a problem with the most serious kinds of misconduct with our force. They just didn't have that information.”

Misconduct not rampant As it turns out, the details don’t suggest that misconduct was rampant. There are approximately 19,000 serving members, and just 335 were brought before a tribunal over the four year period, including:

35 cases of assault, sexual assault and harassment. 30 officers impaired on the job or while driving. 29 Mounties who gave false or misleading statements. 16 unauthorized uses of CPIC, the central police data base. Many of the allegations are also criminal offences, including two cases of possession of child pornography. The CBC asked for details on which cases went on to criminal prosecution, but the RCMP did not make that information available.

62

And while about 50 of the cases were withdrawn, in some cases due to the expiry of the statutory time limit for a hearing, more than a third were deemed so egregious the officers involved either quit, were forced to resign or had to forfeit 10 days pay — the harshest punishment under the RCMP Act short of dismissal.

Just mistakes However the commissioner downplays the significance of the findings.

“95 per cent are just things where people have made mistakes”, Paulson told CBC News. “And, police work is very complicated and people are going to make mistakes.”

Paterson took issue with Paulson’s characterization.

“Surely they are mistakes”, he said. “But these aren't just your garden variety, Oops! I screwed up today at work. These are some serious, serious matters.”

Compassion for misconduct Although the list obtained by CBC News had all the names removed, Abe Townsend, a long serving member of the force, recognized some of the cases just by the allegations.

“It’s sad,” he said. “One incident is too many.”

Townsend sits on the National Executive of the RCMP’s Staff Relations Representative (SRR) program. When a Mountie runs into trouble, they turn to the SRR for help.

Townsend wasn't surprised by the number of incidents. He said it’s consistent with the average of about 100 cases of formal discipline a year.

“I'm discouraged that it wasn't being tracked in a more centralized way” he said.

But, Townsend said the details show that members are being held accountable. Even when they’re off duty, officers are still subject to the code of conduct, and Townsend appeals for compassion.

“It's physically and psychologically arduous work,” Townsend insisted.

“That's been shown not only by our studies but by other Canadian studies, and international studies, and it wears on you. It does wear you down both physically and psychologically. Not to make any excuses because that's not what I'm making, I'm just pointing out a reality.”

But Kosteckyj believed that most Canadians would be surprised by the breadth of misconduct committed by people who go through rigorous recruitment and training.

63 “It's a fair comment that you're going to get some aberrant behaviour in the RCMP”, Kosteckyj conceded.

“You're going to have some mistakes made. You're going to have some guys drinking more than they should — and driving. But these things go beyond that”, Kosteckyj said, adding that Police are supposed to set an example.

“You're not expected to be driving and impaired, you're not expected to be guilty of harassment, you're not expected to mistreat prisoners,” Kosteckyj insisted.

“These are all things that the RCMP are sworn to uphold and prevent — not participate in.”

The RCMP withheld some data requested by CBC News. The reasons why some Mounties were punished were redacted, including for the 21 officers who resigned over their misconduct.

The RCMP also refused to list the regions in which all of the incidents took place. An RCMP spokesman told CBC News that was to protect the privacy of the offenders, even though none were named in the document.

“My suspicion would be that the greatest amount of these would be in the province of British Columbia,” Kosteckyj suggested.

“E Division (the largest division in the RCMP) has the highest proportion of members in uniform in Canada.”

Paterson was all for privacy, but he didn't see the argument in this case.

“I think there's a higher public interest in being able to know where in the country are these kinds of things occurring.

“Are the instances of very serious police misconduct going up? Going down? What are the trend lines? And really we need that information broken down by region so that [it] is of much more use to people right across the country.

“There's been a real crisis of confidence,” Paterson pointed out. “I think people in this province would want to know, do we have a problem?”

Paulson said he wants to know as well.

“We always need to be aware of our training practices,” he said.

“It's another sort of indicator I need on my dashboard to know where the organization is going.”

The exploding cost of policing in Canada By Michael Kempa, special to CBC News Posted: Jan 15, 2013

64 Beginning Wednesday, senior people from federal, provincial and municipal governments, as well as police chiefs, members of civilian oversight bodies and leading academics are convening in Ottawa to address the exploding cost of policing in Canada.

On the face of it, this two-day summit will attempt to find ways to rein in police budgets, which have doubled over the last 15 years, eating away at what is available for other government services.

But to be considered a success, the summit will probably have to go beyond budget trimming if it is to mark a new beginning for policing in this country.

For that to happen, the laws and funding structures for policing must be reformed to strengthen the links between police and other social services, as well as the businesses and private security agencies that make a contribution to public safety.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews suggested as much when he announced that this summit is "an opportunity to assess and implement new ways of ensuring community safety; to learn from other jurisdictions — both inside and outside of Canada — and look for areas for improvement in our own approach."

No more business as usual In the context of an uncertain global economy, where governments almost everywhere are running huge deficits — and in some cases laying off police and other essential services to try to make ends meet — we may have reached the breaking point on what we can spend on policing.

As more and more Canadian municipalities and provincial governments are saying, business as usual simply cannot continue.

Toronto police have been told to flatline their 2013 budget, which Chief Bill Blair warns will lead to fewer officers on the streets, a common dilemma facing municipalities across the country. (Reuters)

Over the past year, Canadians have been peppered with stories of the rising cost of policing, with these issues coming to a head in different ways.

In Toronto, the police services board has been locked in a months-long clash with its Toronto police to try to trim spending by 10 per cent.

The squabble has ended, sort of, with the board having rejected Chief Bill Blair's submission of a budget that was initially $21 million (2.1 per cent) over last year's amount, in favour one that simply held the line and might result in fewer officers next year.

This will leave Toronto city councillors with some hard choices in the days ahead as they struggle to approve a new budget and fund all municipal services without straying further into the red.

65 Meanwhile, mere months after signing long-term policing contracts with the RCMP, municipalities in British Columbia are now complaining that these arrangements are too costly and that the RCMP services being delivered are too disconnected from local priorities.

Smaller Ontario municipalities are in a similar squeeze after seeing their local police forces amalgamated into the Ontario Provincial Police.

A coalition of northern Ontario mayors has now united to put pressure on the province to pay more of what it sees as the excessive costs of OPP services.

What to do? While it is true, in a very simple sense, that the economy can drive police reform — running out of money almost always promotes the search for efficiencies — the real challenges for the future of policing are stemming more from even deeper structural shifts.

All the changes in what we produce, buy, sell, move and consume create new security challenges, which require new policing solutions.

Internet crime, illegal human migration and smuggling, transnational drug and financial fraud networks, and diffuse terrorism, not to mention the normal strains of maintaining order in an increasingly diverse society has constantly heaped new functions on police forces in recent decades.

Leaving aside whether Canada's police have the education and training for all of these tasks, no single organization can hope to stretch and adapt continually to meet all the new security and public safety demands as they emerge indefinitely.

It is probably only going to be through building a new public safety model — and learning how to measure effectively what police do — that we will succeed in dealing with the efficiency problem.

Slashed budgets Getting a handle on the police force of tomorrow won't be an easy task. Our current laws and ways of funding police are not really set up for coordination.

In fact, Canada's fiscal crisis surrounding policing is just the surface of a deeper global one – where the entire way of looking at public safety is out of date.

Police or parks? Some hard hit U.S. cities, like Stanton, Calif., have had to suffer both. It closed its lone police station as well as a number of parks. (Associated Press) In the U.S., the economic crisis has resulted in massive budget cuts where nearly half of American police forces have seen their finances slashed by 20 to 40 per cent in the last four years.

The laying off of police officers, unpaid furloughs and the disorganization of community policing programs has been the unfortunate result.

66 In Britain, the government has cut police budgets by 20 per cent across the nation, part of a broad austerity program — and has been experimenting with the most extensive privatization of police services since the 1700s.

The entire architecture for holding both public and private security agencies accountable has been revamped as a result. The jury remains out as to whether this will work.

But the good news is that the British government is keeping track of successes and failures through proper evaluation, in order to learn from experience and adjust its experiments as it goes forward.

Unless Canada gets out in front of the innovation curve, we can probably expect, given a context of limited economic growth, to see a scenario similar to that of the U.S. — in particular, disorganized cutting where the "low hanging fruit" is trimmed from existing policing structures.

In that case, trimming unevenly across the country could well result in an ineffective and poorly coordinated system for public safety.

Canadians will know if this week's summit was a success if specific, innovative approaches to community safety — best cases from across Canada and overseas — are identified and rolled out on a trial basis.

If we keep track of what works best, and use this evidence to reform Canadian policing from the foundation up, then the current economic crisis will not have been wasted.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS City right to merge fire, police 8:32 PM, Jan 12, 2013 Times Herald Opinion Editorials Port Huron’s plan to merge its police and fire departments is a wise decision and a prudent step.

Public safety consolidation is a sign of the times — especially in Michigan. Bay City, Grosse Pointe Woods and Bloomfield Hills, among others, have combined their police and fire departments. Ecorse and River Rouge expect to do the same.

Every police/fire merger might not have been enacted to save money, but most recent ones were. Revenue is tight, and most local governments see consolidation as one way to stretch their dollars.

67 Mergers also put municipalities in better stead with Lansing. State aid to local governments has all but dried up in past years. Departmental consolidation is one of Gov. Rick Snyder’s conditions for sharing with municipalities.

Port Huron officials are well aware of these factors. To their credit, city leaders have consistently pursued merger opportunities.

There were failed attempts to merge the police department with the St. Clair County Sheriff Department and the brief merger with Marysville’s department. If those efforts didn’t meet with success, they didn’t deter Port Huron’s interest in consolidating municipal services.

When the fire merger proved unworkable, Port Huron could have hired another fire chief from within or outside the department. Instead, the city decided to combine the police and fire departments.

The city’s police/fire merger isn’t as dramatic as its previous attempts, but it seems to stand the best chance of success. Consolidating the two departments is relatively painless. No layoffs are planned and police, and fire personnel won’t be required to cross-train.

The most important change is police Chief Michael Reaves will lead both departments. He’ll get a $10,000 raise for the added responsibility and earn $102,000. Even with the pay increase, the city will see a savings.

Port Huron’s fire department hasn’t had a chief since Bob Eick retired last year. The salary and benefits the city won’t have to pay will save at least $140,000.

The potential savings shouldn’t stop there. Combining police and fire is an important step that should offer other ways to cut costs after city officials have time to assess its operation.

Greater efficiency is a standard most dollar-conscious municipal governments must strive to meet. Port Huron has adopted a relatively easy merger that should bring the city dividends.

Minneapolis, Milwaukee mayors hold gun summit By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Updated 8:14 pm, Thursday, January 10, 2013

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — With the gun control debate heating up nationally, several mayors, police chiefs and prosecutors from around the Upper Midwest gathered Thursday and said strong community partnerships, interagency collaboration and greater access to data on firearms are keys to preventing the violence they see every day.

68 The officials met in Minneapolis for a daylong regional summit on gun violence and policies, hosted by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. It was planned a year ago, months before 26 people were killed in December at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and before the recent mass slayings in Minneapolis and the Milwaukee area. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said that while those mass shootings require federal action, there is also a "slow-motion mass murder" happening in cities across America, and that daily violence can't be ignored. The summit occurred on the same day Vice President Joe Biden announced he reached a consensus on some gun policy proposals, including banning assault weapons. Biden plans to present those proposals — which are opposed by the National Rifle Association — to President Barack Obama next week. Rybak, who is among a group of mayors headed to Washington next week to lobby for federal gun-law reform, said key issues emerged as the group held candid discussions throughout the day. "We can see where the momentum is moving in Washington and that will be more helpful to focus our work, it won't however limit, where we go," he said. Among the issues discussed was changing federal laws that prevent authorities from sharing information on firearms, Rybak said. He said he has been outraged to show up at a crime scene to find that the agent from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is legally barred from giving a local police officer everything he knows about the firearm or suspect involved. "When a gun is illegal, when it's in the hands of a criminal, we should have all arms of government doing everything humanly possible to prevent that from killing someone," he said. Summit participants also talked about the need for information about the mental health of someone seeking a gun license. And, Rybak said, the federal government needs to stop tying the hands of the ATF, which hasn't had a confirmed director in six years and is underfunded. Summit participants included officials from several cities and suburbs in Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as authorities from Kansas City, Mo.; Des Moines, Iowa; and Chicago. The mayors acknowledged they are under fire by those who don't support changes to gun laws. "We are fighting for the freedom for the people of this country to be safe," Barrett said. Sami Rahamim, the son of a Minneapolis business owner who was gunned down in September, said the summit was powerful because it showed him that officials care about those whose lives have been destroyed by gun violence. "They care about the right of every American ... to safety and the right to feel safe when they go to work, when they go to their place of worship, when they go to see a movie," said Rahamim, 17. Rahamim's father, Reuven Rahamim, four employees and a UPS driver were fatally shot at Accent Signage on Sept. 27 by a gunman who took his own life. Rybak said it's time to put the outrage people feel over gun violence into action. "In the name of the people who have been lost, we cannot give up this fight," he said.

69 Mexico’s Gun Problems Go Beyond Drug Wars By Emilio Godoy Reprint | Inter Press Service News Agency MEXICO CITY, Jan 11 2013 (IPS) - A lot of attention goes to the U.S.-made weapons in the hands of criminal groups in this Latin American country. But there is little talk of another problem: the large number of light weapons in the hands of civilians.

The Mexican Constitution establishes the people’s right to “own guns in their homes for their safety and self-defence”, with the exception of high caliber weapons, while the 1972 Federal Law on Firearms and Explosives stipulates the requirements for enrollment in the Federal Arms Register.

Experts disagree on whether the current violent situation gripping society needs to be answered with a reform of the law, or simply application of its precepts.

“Mexico has one of the most restrictive laws. I don’t think the law is the conflict, but how it is applied,” Magda Coss, author of “Arms Trafficking in Mexico: Corruption, Weaponisation and Culture of Violence”, told IPS.

“In the application there are many flaws, there are many citizens who are unaware of them,” she said.

“On the other hand is the corruption of the authorities. There is no follow up of seizure and storage” of legal arms to prevent them from ending up on the black market,” added the expert, whose book was published in 2010.

Gun ownership in homes and their flow into the streets has helped worsen violence in Mexico, while the drug cartels are supplied through the illicit flow of arms by gangs involved in large-scale trade.

In 2011, the National Defence Ministry (Sedena) had 2.45 million registered weapons, mostly rifles and shotguns for hunting and target shooting, followed by semi-automatic pistols.

But the ministry recognises that only one in 300 weapons circulating in this nation of nearly 117 million people is legal and complies with all requirements.

In Mexico, citizens own more than 15 million illegally-sourced guns, according to the 2011 report, “Estimated firearms in civilian hands,” part of the annual Small Arms Survey developed by Geneva’s Graduate Institute of the International and Development Studies.

Experts like Luis Gutierrez, president of the non-governmental Circulo Lationamericano de Estudios Internacionales (Latin American Circle of International Studies), recommend the design and approval of a new gun law, with strict standards on purchase, possession and transfer.

70

“The current law is outdated and lacks effective enforcement. At home you can purchase any type of clandestine weapons, such as assault rifles and grenades,” said the activist, whose organisation is part of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA).

The fight against drugs, began since 2006 by then president of Mexico, the conservative Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), left a toll of 100,000 dead, 25,000 missing and 240,000 displaced, according to statistics by the independent Mexico Evalua (Mexico Evaluates), the National Institute of Statistics and Geography and the Attorney General.

Since Calderon’s successor, the likewise conservative Enrique Peña Nieto, took office on Dec. 1, the violence has increased the number of deaths to 850, according to a count by the Mexican press.

Mexican drug cartels augment their firepower with heavy weapons smuggled from the United States, while illegal light guns come through the southern border from Central American nations.

Between 2007 and 2012, the Mexican government seized 140,000 weapons, mostly lethal rifles such as the AK-47, AR-15 and M-16, according to figures by the Department of Defence.

The perception of insecurity that surrounds Mexican society has led civilians to acquire weapons, despite continuing social rejection to improve facilities for obtaining them. In the U.S., it is estimated that there are 270 million guns in the hands of a population of 313 million people.

A 2011 survey by consultancy Parametría found that 51 percent of Mexicans polled disapprove of gun ownership in the home, while 38 percent support a total ban.

Analysis by the Small Arms Survey places Mexico 42 out of 170 countries surveyed on the number of small arms in the hands of individuals, who mostly own this category of guns, including machine guns, rifles, assault rifles, shotguns and automatic and semiautomatic pistols.

“They don’t run awareness campaigns. The campaigns of ‘depistolization’ do not highlight the implications of having weapons at home,” Coss said, referring to the campaigns to retire weapons that are run every year by the national government and city authorities in Mexico.

The law governing this sector requires that authorities “will conduct permanent educational campaigns that induce a reduction in possession, carrying and use of weapons of any kind”, but the provision is not enforced.

Gutierrez is committed to prohibition, but recognises that the current situation hinders that goal.

71 “The laws that enable the acquisition of weapons should not exist, there should be a blanket ban, but at the moment this vision would encounter resistance from sectors of the population and stakeholders,” he said.

“The justification of arming a society is a grave irresponsibility,” he said.

Mexico is one of the biggest promoters of the International Arms Trade Treaty, the first binding agreement to regulate the flow, currently being negotiated at the United Nations.

But the deal was blocked in July 2012 by China, the United States and Russia.

The parties will meet again in March in New York to try to unblock the negotiations. Mexico is part of the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials, in force since 1998.

But Mexico did not join the regional campaign, “Promoting Firearms Marking in Latin America and the Caribbean”, that the Organization of American States runs in more than 20 countries, despite continuing allegations that the arms trade is responsible for many livelihoods in the region.

Louisiana: New Orleans Rethinks Deal on Police By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON Published: January 12, 2013 The New York Times A federal judge in New Orleans on Friday approved a sweeping consent decree with the city’s Police Department, one of the most ambitious blueprints for a police overhaul in the country in years. The agreement was announced last summer by officials from the city, the Police Department and the Justice Department, after two years of investigations and negotiations. But in a sign that the matter may be far from settled, Judge Susie Morgan of Federal District Court acknowledged in her order that the city intended to file a motion to withdraw from the deal. In a statement, Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu said he wanted to hold off on the pact because he objected to the millions of dollars the city may have to spend under a separate agreement pertaining to the city jail, which is currently being negotiated. “We asked the judge to hold off on executing the police consent decree until the price tag of the prison consent decree is clear,” Mr. Landrieu said.

Biden, NRA Clash Over New Control Proposals JULIE PACE AND ERICA WERNER SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS CREATED: JANUARY 11, 2013

72 The Obama administration is currently assembling proposals to curb gun violence.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite fresh opposition from the National Rifle Association, the Obama administration is assembling proposals to curb gun violence that would include a ban on sales of assault weapons, limits on high- capacity ammunition magazines and universal background checks for gun buyers.

Sketching out details of the plan Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said he would give President Barack Obama a set of recommendations by next Tuesday. The NRA, one of the pro-gun groups that met with Biden during the day, rejected the effort to limit ammunition and dug in on its opposition to an assault weapons ban, which Obama has previously said he will propose to Congress.

"The vice president made it clear, made it explicitly clear, that the president had already made up his mind on those issues," NRA president David Keene said following the meeting. "We made it clear that we disagree with them."

Opposition from the well-funded and politically powerful NRA underscores the challenges that await the White House if it seeks congressional approval for limiting guns and ammunition and greatly expanding background checks. Obama can use his executive powers to act alone on some gun measures, but his options on the proposals opposed by the NRA are limited without Congress' cooperation.

Obama has pushed reducing gun violence to the top of his domestic agenda following last month's massacre of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school. The president put Biden in charge of an administration-wide task force and set a late January deadline for proposals.

"I committed to him I'd have these recommendations to him by Tuesday," Biden said Thursday, during a separate White House meeting with sportsmen and wildlife groups. "It doesn't mean it's the end of the discussion, but the public wants us to act."

The vice president later huddled privately with the NRA and other gun owner groups for more than 90 minutes. Participants in the meeting described it as an open and frank discussion, but one that yielded little movement from either side on long-held positions.

Richard Feldman, the president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association, said all were in agreement on a need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and people with mental health issues. But when the conversation turned to broad restrictions on high capacity magazines and assault weapons, Feldman said Biden suggested the president had already made up his mind to seek a ban.

"Is there wiggle room and give?" Feldman said. "I don't know."

73 White House officials said the vice president didn't expect to win over the NRA and other gun groups on those key issues. But the administration was hoping to soften their opposition in order to rally support from pro-gun lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Some 40 percent of gun sales in the U.S. take place without background checks, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. They include sales at gun shows and by private sellers over the Internet and elsewhere. Moving to "totally universal background checks," as Biden suggested Thursday, would be a major undertaking - and one the NRA opposes.

Biden's proposals are also expected to include recommendations to address mental health care and violence on television and in movies and video games. Those issues have wide support from gun rights groups and pro-gun lawmakers.

The vice president also met Thursday with representatives from the entertainment industry, including Comcast Corp. and the Motion Picture Association of America. He'll hold talks Friday with the video game industry.

During his meeting with sporting and wildlife groups, Biden said that while no recommendations would eliminate all future shootings, "there has got to be some common ground, to not solve every problem but diminish the probability that our children are at risk in their schools and diminish the probability that firearms will be used in violent behavior in our society."

As the meetings took place in Washington, a student was shot and wounded at a rural California high school and another student was taken into custody.

Biden also talked about holes in NICS - the National Instant Criminal Background Check System - when states don't relay information to the database used by dealers to check purchasers. Advocates blame Congress for not fully funding a law that provides money to help states send records to the database.

Gun control backers see plenty of room for executive action when it comes to improving background checks and other areas.

For example, advocates say Obama could order the Justice Department to prosecute more people flagged by background checks as prohibited purchasers when they try to buy guns; expand a rule that requires dealers to notify the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives when someone tries to buy multiple semiautomatic rifles, a program now confined to Mexico border states, and increase enforcement actions at gun shows.

The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns has sent the White House 40 steps it says would save lives and dramatically improve enforcement of existing laws without any action by Congress.

Several Cabinet members have also taken on an active role in Biden's gun violence task force, including Attorney General Eric Holder. He met Thursday

74 with Wal-Mart, the nation's largest firearms seller, along with other retailers such as Bass Pro Shops and Dick's Sporting Goods.

The president hopes to announce his administration's next steps to tackle gun violence shortly after he is sworn in for a second term. He has pledged to push for new measures in his State of the Union address.

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, January 17, 2013 Former Department Of Homeland Security Office Of Inspector General Agent Admits Role In Records Falsification Scheme A former special agent of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG) pleaded guilty today in a Southern District of Texas federal court to participating in a scheme to falsify records and to obstruct an internal field office inspection, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Wayne Ball, 40, of McAllen, Texas, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Randy Crane to one count of conspiracy to falsify records in federal investigations and to obstruct an agency proceeding.

DHS-OIG is the principal component within DHS with the responsibility to investigate alleged criminal activity by DHS employees, including corruption affecting the integrity of U.S. borders. According to court documents, Ball served as a special agent with DHS-OIG at its McAllen Field Office from January 2009 to November 2012.

According to court documents, in September 2011, DHS-OIG conducted an internal inspection of the field office to evaluate whether its internal investigative standards and policies were being followed. Beginning in August 2011, Ball and at least two other DHS-OIG employees, identified in court documents as “Supervisor A” and “Special Agent A,” allegedly engaged in a scheme to falsify documents in investigative case files. Ball admitted that the scheme’s purpose was to conceal lapses – including significant periods of inactivity in pending criminal investigations over periods of months or years – from personnel conducting the inspection and DHS-OIG headquarters, including by falsifying investigative activity which had not taken place.

According to court documents, a criminal investigation was initiated by DHS-OIG in March 2010 into allegations that a Customs and Border Protection officer was assisting the unlawful smuggling of undocumented aliens and narcotics into the United States. Special Agent A allegedly drafted false memoranda of activity (MOAs), at Supervisor A’s direction, to fill gaps of inactivity in the investigation, to which Special Agent A was assigned. With the intention of filling gaps that had

75 occurred when Special Agent A was either not present at the office to investigate cases or was not employed by DHS-OIG at all, Special Agent A allegedly attributed the investigative activity to Ball, who signed and backdated the false MOAs. Supervisor A also allegedly signed and backdated the documents, which were placed in the investigation’s case file in advance of the internal inspection.

The charge of conspiracy carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Ball is scheduled to be sentenced on April 16, 2013.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Timothy J. Kelly and Eric L. Gibson of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. The case is being investigated by agents of the FBI, San Antonio Division.

Anaheim to Develop Proposal for Greater Oversight of Police

Voice of OC Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 4:39 am | Updated: 8:49 am, Thu Jan 17, 2013. ADAM ELMAHREK The debate in Anaheim about police conduct has become so contentious that at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting Police Chief John Welter publicly accused a former council candidate of spreading “bullshit lies” during the public comments portion of the meeting. The accusation came just after the City Council unanimously directed City Manager Bob Wingenroth to develop a specific proposal for a police oversight body that would include civilians. A clearly angry Welter confronted Duane Roberts, a frequent critic of the Police Department on OrangeJuice Blog, in the crowded council chambers lobby and told Roberts to speak with the chief before maligning him at council meetings. “Do I get a chance to refute all the bullshit lies you say at council? No,” Welter said. That the police chief would publicly berate a resident and insist that the chief be allowed to vet the criticism before it goes public raised concerns among some about a possible chilling effect on residents who witnessed the confrontation. West Anaheim resident Art Castillo, who was present during the exchange, called Welter’s tirade “intimidation” toward residents who want to make public their grievances about the police department. Welter is “not listening to the people who are the victims,” Castillo said. During public comments, Roberts challenged Welter’s claim in an Al-Jazeera documentary that he didn’t know about a military-style police unit that had been dispatched to patrol the city after a downtown riot in the wake of a string of fatal police shootings. Rioters damaged 20 downtown businesses. In video aired by Al Jazeera, cadres of officers in military fatigues are seen brandishing assault rifles while hitched to sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. Critics had said the scene looked more like a military occupation of a foreign country than an American police patrol.

76 Roberts had said during public comments that he saw an officer on a motorcycle who looked like Welter. Roberts speculated that he struck a nerve with the chief by indicating that Welter may have been overseeing what he acknowledged to Al-Jazeera was a regrettable and excessive display of force. “Now you see why people don’t file complaints about police officers,” Roberts said. Welter quickly departed after a Voice of OC reporter began taking notes during the confrontation. He could not be reached for comment later in the evening. Mayor Tom Tait said that it’s “tough to comment” on an incident he didn’t witness. Wingenroth said that he would “look into it.” Police Oversight The council’s direction to Wingenroth to assemble a police oversight proposal — first proposed by Tait last month — is a response to weeks of unrest in the city last July that was sparked by a series of fatal police shootings. “Accountability, transparency, independent oversight makes any organization better,” Tait said. The council considered four police review models. They included an individual auditor or ombudsman with the power to conduct an investigation; an auditor who would have only the power to review internal affairs examinations; a civilian review board to review investigations; and an “investigative” model that would have an independent agency or board composed of civilian investigators. Ultimately, the council directed Wingenroth to develop a proposal he thought was best and would include civilians in the process. Wingenroth said after the meeting that he hasn’t chosen a model yet but would consider council comments in his decision. There are questions as to the effectiveness of civilian review boards. While some cities across the state have civilian oversight bodies, public access to their findings and deliberations was significantly curtailed by the 2006 California Supreme Court decision in the Copley Press v. Superior Court case. The court ruled against the San Diego Union-Tribune's request for access to transcripts and other documents relating to a San Diego Civil Service Commission hearing on the termination of a San Diego County sheriff's deputy. Open-government advocates said the decision effectively shut down civilian oversight in California. Welter and Kerry Condon, president of the Anaheim Police Association, expressed opposition to a potential civilian oversight board. Welter argued that the police department already has at least four layers of both internal and external oversight. He said he fears a civilian oversight board would inhibit officers from taking necessary action in dangerous situations. There were eight homicides, 58 gun assaults and 48 non-gun assaults by gang members in 2012, according to Deputy Police Chief Raul Quezada. Relatives of police shooting victims and other activists have contended that police officers shoot with impunity. “It’s part of the job. We face people who are undesirable, and they want to kill us,” Welter said. “If the [district attorney] finds that an officer murdered someone, assassinated someone, like some of these people at the podium are alleging, I will be the first to ask them to prosecute.” After a police shooting, the district attorney’s office conducts a criminal investigation, Welter said. Meanwhile, the police department conducts a review

77 of the situation by its internal affairs department and Major Incident Review Team, which reviews training, policies and equipment, Welter said. And while critics argue that the DA is too close to the police department to conduct an unbiased review, Welter argued that such concerns are not valid. He cited the DA’s prosecution of an Anaheim officer who had committed a sexual assault as evidence. Welter described at least one of the police department’s oversight entities — the Los Angeles Office of Independent Review — as a civilian oversight body with experts in excessive force and civil rights law. The city has for four years contracted, at Welter’s request, with the organization to analyze internal reviews of use-of-force incidents and make recommendations for improvement. The goal is to eliminate the conditions that lead to police shootings, Welter said. Issuing more polite commands, like “please don’t move,” is among those recommendations so far, Welter said. Also, Welter said that to involve the community with the Police Department he has been working with a 22-member chief’s advisory board of represntatives from activists groups like Los Amigos of Orange County and from faith-based organizations, nonprofits, among others. Condon said that civilian review boards come to police departments that have been plagued with corruption and that Anaheim is “nowhere near” needing one. He noted that the DA, which he said is an independent oversight body, had cleared every police officer involved in a shooting. “There has not been a bad shooting here in Anaheim ever,” Condon said. Theresa Smith, mother of Caesar Cruz, who was shot and killed by police in 2009, reacted with joy after the council’s decision. She said that although the board might not be transparent because of the Copley decision, an unbiased review is important to restoring trust in the police department. “They voted unanimously to look into it, and that’s great,” Smith said.

Policing and Mental Health Experts Meet to Develop Prevention Model for Mental Health- Related Gun Violence

Police Foundation convenes practitioners, policy makers, and researchers for systematic review of existing research and best practices focused on risk assessment and intervention

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2013 -- In the wake of the unspeakable tragedy in Newtown, CT, last month, and amid the complex ongoing political debate about the role of firearms in incidents of mass violence in America, the Washington, DC-based Police Foundation yesterday convened a distinguished group of experts from the law enforcement, science, mental health, and policy arenas to focus on mental health-related gun violence. Drawing upon a multidisciplinary body of knowledge, which establishes the extreme difficulty in predicting a violent act, the expert group distilled existing

78 research into a framework that combines prevention and intervention strategies to give communities and the police a path to preventing mental health-related shootings rather than simply responding to the scene of yet another tragedy.

The group assembled the first iteration of a Community Crisis Early Intervention System to help avert future tragedies and to get those suffering with mental illness the help they need. By developing a systemic approach that weaves this knowledge together in a straightforward, practical manner, the group hopes to provide the police and the communities they serve with practical, no-to-low cost recommendations that can be quickly implemented.

Describing the impetus for the meeting, Police Foundation President Jim Bueermann said, "While a national response is important and necessary, we can and should find ways to address mental health-related gun violence at the local level. The police, school officials, mental health specialists, parents, and community leaders need practical, evidence-based suggestions about the prevention of these tragedies. And they need them now. We can leverage the taxpayers' investment in policing, mental health systems, and research into "what works" by giving the police three clear recommendations."

The three things every police chief or sheriff should know about preventing mental health-related gun violence are: a. The police should create local partnerships with mental health service providers, school officials, and appropriate community groups to develop a mental health crisis response capacity; b. Police chiefs and sheriffs should use the bully pulpit afforded them to keep community focus on the need for mental health services and convene local service providers and community members to enhance knowledge about local needs, services, and the science of mental illness and gun violence; and, c. Police chiefs and sheriffs should adopt policies and practices that help reduce the availability of firearms to people in mental health crisis, institutionalize mental health training for their officers, and facilitate community-wide "mental health first aid" training for all community members.

The group will continue its work to provide the police, community members, and local policymakers with evidence-based tools that build on these recommendations and sharpen the focus on preventing mental health-related gun violence. This is the first of a series of meetings the Foundation will host on critical issues facing the police and the communities they serve.

In addition to the Police Foundation, the following organizations participated in the roundtable discussion: American Psychological Association; National Institute of Mental Health; US Department of Justice

79 Bureau of Justice Assistance, Civil Rights Division, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, and FBI Behavioral Science Unit; International Association of Chiefs of Police; Police Executive Research Forum; Mothers Against Drunk Driving; National Council for Behavioral Health; Office of New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids; US Department of Homeland Security; New Haven CT Police Department; Montgomery County MD

Police Department; and researchers from George Mason University's Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia, and West Virginia University.

About the Police Foundation

The Police Foundation is America's oldest nonpartisan, nonprofit police research organization whose mission is to advance policing through innovation and science. Motivating all of the foundation's efforts is the goal of efficient, effective, humane policing that operates within the framework of democratic principles and the highest ideals of the nation.

Police review tactics amid rioting

Monday, 14 January 2013

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Matt Baggott speaks about the continued violence following the Union Flag protests in Belfast

Police are revising the tactics being used to deal with Union flag rioters, Northern Ireland's most senior police officer has revealed.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Matt Baggott was speaking after another weekend of violence following flag protests.

Mr Baggott described the disorder in Cloughfern, Carrickfergus and east Belfast on Friday and Saturday as intense, and warned those involved to expect a knock at the door.

"Our approach has always been to be measured and responsible," he said.

"We have simply to put public safety first. That has worked very well and continues to work well. Pragmatically, when you have over 4,000 people engaged in protest it is simply impossible to have a rigid approach to that. What we are keen to do is to keep hospitals and arterial routes open and are continually revising our tactics.

"There is speculation about why doesn't the PSNI do this. The reality is we make sure that people's rights for peaceful protest are upheld wherever possible and we preserve our resources for dealing with the most serious

80 outbreaks of violence."

On Saturday violence broke out in east Belfast between republicans and loyalists returning from a protest at Belfast City Hall over a council decision to restrict the flying of the Union flag there. To date, 101 police officers have been injured during the rioting, one of whom remains in hospital. There have been 112 arrests connected to the disorder.

The chief constable stopped short of saying that the PSNI would move flag protesters off the streets. Mr Baggott added: "I think there is a reality check about the role of policing in a democracy. Unless you are going to literally have tens of thousands of police officers, probably backed up by the military covering every street in Northern Ireland, you cannot deal with this simply by law enforcement approach.

"Policing is all about the consent of the public and working with politics and at the moment that is the bit that needs to be reasserted. What I can do, in charge of this fantastic organisation, is to make sure that we give space for the politics to work."

Mr Baggott also said criminal gangs in working class loyalist areas were exploiting young protesters for their own ends. He added: "They were leading young people by the nose towards prison."

Guidance, Not Guns; Counselors, Not Cops January 15, 2013 02:06:00 am By Liz Ryan

The Crime Report

As the country grieves and looks for ways to begin to heal in the wake of the Newtown tragedy, we have a unique opportunity to honor the lives lost with a comprehensive, effective public policy response.

Our sincerest sympathies go to the children, youth and families impacted.

The Administration and Congress must now move quickly, but thoughtfully, to put forward policies and practices that recognize and address the violence experienced every day in communities around the country.

As our national leaders consider their response, they should focus on five principles: Safe Schools; Mental Health; Prevention; Intervention; and Healing.

To increase safety in schools, some have suggested more guns in schools as a response to the incident in Sandy Hook.

81 But the nation's educational leaders, including the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, have stated emphatically that, "Guns have no place in our schools."

Others have suggested more police presence.

But research has shown that increased police presence has not made schools safer. In fact, it has resulted in the criminalization of young people in the justice system.

University of Delaware Professor Aaron Kupchik, author of "Homeroom Security" says that while armed guards are already in many schools, "their presence has effects that help transform the school from an environment of academia to a site of criminal law enforcement.

Instead of more guns and more police presence, education experts such as Barbara Raymond of The California Endowment point to the importance of counselors, social workers, psychologists and evidence-based programs. One example is the school-wide positive behavior support program to improve learning environments in schools and help children resolve conflict. The Sandy Hook killings also underscore the need to improve access to quality, community-based behavioral mental health services for children and young people.

An interdisciplinary group of more than 200 violence prevention researchers, practitioners and professional associations recommends that, "these efforts should promote wellness, as well as address mental health needs of all community members while simultaneously responding to potential threats to community safety.

“This initiative should include a large scale public education and awareness campaign, along with newly created channels of communication to help get services to those in need." Additionally, a comprehensive approach must address the root causes of violence, and focus resources on proven violence prevention and juvenile delinquency prevention programs such as the University of Colorado's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence's "Blueprints for Violence Prevention" programs.

Easy access to guns that kill 7 young people a day and injure 43 more is a challenge addressed by the bipartisan national coalition of 750 mayors led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston. The coalition has created comprehensive recommendations to severely reduce the easy access to guns and assault weapons in the U.S. Finally, there must be a focus on healing.

The U.S. Attorney General's Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence undertook an exhaustive examination over the past year on best practices and approaches to reducing children’s exposure to violence. The task force report included recommendations on reducing exposure of children to violence in the

82 justice system, to counter current approaches that are counterproductive, wasteful and increase risk of re-offending.

The Task Force also made recommendations to ensure that trauma-informed services and care are provided when children are exposed to violence.

To help realize its recommendations, the Task Force highlighted the need for new federal leadership and a new federal initiative on the issue to guide the federal government's work in this area.

Task force co-chair Robert Listenbee, Jr., chief of the Juvenile Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia summed it up in his statement when the report was released: “We have the power to end the damage to children from violence and abuse."

We know the need. We also know what works.

What’s required now is action.

It is time for Congress and the Administration to step up and provide the leadership and resolve to end violence against children. Q & A

Studying Crime: The Next Steps January 14, 2013 02:16:00 am By Ted Gest The Crime Report Until this year, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which oversees federal research on crime and justice issues, was headed by John H. Laub of the University of Maryland, a former president of the American Society of Criminology. Laub’s appointment, in 2009, by President Barack Obama, represented the first time in its nearly 40-year history that the NIJ was run by an academic criminologist.

This month, Laub left NIJ to return to teaching at Maryland, making him the second major Justice agency head to depart as the Obama Administration begins a second term. James Lynch left his post as director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) last month. In a Q&A with The Crime Report last week, Lynch discussed the challenge of working under sharply diminished federal budgets.

Laub raised similar issues in a recent conversation with TCR’s Washington bureau chief Ted Gest. In their wide-ranging talk, he also discussed why the agency has focused under his leadership on a narrower range of issues such as mass incarceration, how the NIJ can play a role in the national debate over gun violence, and why it took so long to earmark studies on the 20-year decline in crime.

83

The Crime Report: While Washington grapples with big questions of federal spending, your agency has a minuscule budget—in the $40 million annual range—to deal with a broad range of research subjects in crime and criminal justice. How have you been able to manage it?

Laub: I do believe the budget is too low given the importance of the issue of crime, and it limits our ability to do all of the things we want to do. (But) I will say that despite the small budget, a two-percent set-aside we received as part of the appropriation for the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs has given us more flexibility to operate.

The challenge is two-fold: both the amount of the budget itself, and how much of it is discretionary spending on our part. For example, NIJ has a considerable amount to spend on the DNA backlog issue, but what we can do with those funds is restricted to certain kinds of activity.

Under the set-aside, this year there was an additional $25 million for research and statistics. About one-third goes to NIJ, another third to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the remaining amount for joint projects between the two agencies.

Among the subjects we’ve been able to address with those funds are victim- offender overlap—the fact that many crime victims also are offenders, and vice versa—as well as research on indigent defense, metropolitan crime, and the underlying relationships between race and criminal victimization, especially violence.

TCR: Like your sister agency the BJS, the National Institute of Justice was evaluated by an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council as you were taking office. How has that affected your work?

Laub: The report provided an excellent blueprint for change. (It) was quite accurate in saying that NIJ had failed to develop a comprehensive body of knowledge on crime and criminal justice. The agency had tended to try doing too many things, including too many one-off projects. It needed to prioritize and focus on developing a coherent research agenda that addressed the most important topics in the field.

Let me give an example. Two of the most compelling topics in our field from the last two decades are the run-up in incarceration, termed “mass incarceration” by some people, and the declining crime rates. NIJ should be leading the research effort in both of those areas to help the nation understand what is happening and why.

I am happy to say that we have made investments in both of these areas. NIJ is co-funding with the MacArthur Foundation a National Research Council panel examining the causes and consequences of high rates of incarceration headed by my predecessor Jeremy Travis, now president of John Jay College.

84 In addition, this past year we supported the start of a National Research Council (NRC) project that will examine crime trends. The NRC is establishing six roundtables to consider various aspects of the crime decline.

Finally, related to the incarceration issue, this past year we also funded a new Harvard Executive Session dealing with community corrections. The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University has had a long run of successful executive sessions focusing on law enforcement, going back to the 1980s.

TCR: We’ve known for more than a decade that crime was going down. Why is the project just starting now?

LAUB: The issue now is to disentangle the various competing narratives [to isolate] the trends. There are several plausible explanations out there as to why crime is declining. It seems that now is the time that researchers, practitioners, and policymakers should sort out which factors have really contributed, and which ones have not. We couldn’t have done this well 20 years ago, when crime started to decline. Perhaps this project could have been started earlier, but better late than never.

TCR: Isn’t it clear that there are multiple explanations for the decline, not just one?

LAUB: Yes, but we should try to establish which factors are influential, and which are not. For example, it now seems that a decline in the economy did not cause an increase in crime. We need to examine issues like demographics, including immigration, and how they are related to the up and down swings of crime rates. Also, the forecasting issue looms large: what is our ability to predict crime trends, both in the short run and long run?

TCR: Are there any other major aspects of the follow-up to the National Research Council panel report you’d like to mention?

LAUB: I think the key recommendation was the need to strengthen science at NIJ. We have done several things to address that. One was strengthening our peer review process on research proposals, specifically, moving to standing peer review panels. Second, we hired a deputy director, Greg Ridgeway of the RAND Corporation, to oversee our science areas. He has been serving as acting director of NIJ since my departure on January 4. Greg is a well-known scientist in our field with a stellar reputation.

Third is the issue I just mentioned: making sure that NIJ is working in the areas of most prominence in the field. Besides the ones we discussed—incarceration and crime trends—I’m referring to things such as replicating Hawaii’s Project HOPE on probation reform; and Stanford University criminologist Joan Petersilia’s evaluation of California’s prison-jail “realignment.” These are big criminal justice issues.

NIJ should be the leader in scientific research on crime and justice. We are proud of our portfolio of research. I believe NIJ is back where it belongs. We cannot do

85 everything, especially given the budget constraints you mentioned at the outset. In the past, there had been a tendency to take our roughly $40 million budget and try to do 40 different things with it.

TCR: We’ve mentioned on this website your interest in “translational criminology.” Where does it stand as you leave office?

LAUB: “Translational criminology” is a perfect description of why NIJ exists. On the one hand, we’re a science agency; and at the same time we must translate to practitioners and others what we are doing that is relevant to our field. It’s a two- way street. Scientists inform criminal-justice practitioners of their scientific discoveries. Practitioners offer their unique observations that can inform scientists and generate new areas of research inquiry.

Specific things we are doing to foster translational criminology include the Harvard University Executive Sessions I mentioned, which produce ground- breaking papers that are jointly authored by researchers and law enforcement practitioners, including police chiefs. Now we are starting a similar session for community corrections.

There also is the Justice Department's crime solutions website, now under NIJ supervision, which compiles scientific evaluations of criminal-justice programs that policymakers and the general public can consult.

Within NIJ we have established a translational criminology working group that meets monthly to discuss the issues involved. There is increasing interest outside NIJ. It is great that George Mason University in Virginia now has a journal on translational criminology. This suggests to me that this is a subject that isn’t going away any time soon.

TCR: Panel discussions on this subject at American Society of Criminology conventions in the last two years indicated that fields in criminal justice like law enforcement and corrections have embraced this concept. Are there others where you think more progress should be made?

LAUB: Yes. I’d include prosecutors, judges, and crime victims generally, including domestic violence. I think the area of crime victims and victim services is fertile ground for translational research efforts.

TCR: There has been increased interest in research on gun violence since the Newtown school shootings in December. And there have been articles reporting that the National Rifle Association has inhibited research by the Centers for Disease Control. What is NIJ’s role generally?

LAUB: In the past, NIJ had a large and robust portfolio of research on firearms and violence under a now-retired NIJ staff member, Lois Mock. We also funded a National Research Council panel on the subject headed by criminologist Charles Wellford of the University of Maryland that reported in 2005.

86 It’s important to do something in this area. Last spring, we pulled together several researchers from the field, as well as from federal agencies to come together to discuss what is known about guns and crime, and what areas needed further examination. It was a lively and robust discussion. Depending on what happens with our budget for next year, I hope NIJ can commission more studies in this area. The cost of gun violence in the United States is far too high not to have NIJ more active in this space.

I agree that the area has been under-researched. One challenge is whether there is a data infrastructure available that can help produce more useful knowledge. This is an issue that was addressed in the NRC Report chaired by Charles Wellford.

TCR: It’s often been noted that you are the first Ph.D. criminologist ever to head this agency. Should that practice continue with your successors?

LAUB: The director need not be a current academic but it’s extremely important to have a research scientist. It keeps the focus on science, provides credibility with staff, and it’s important to our external stakeholders to have someone who is knowledgeable about the topic. So I believe it is absolutely essential to have a research scientist. I should say that there were successful directors in NIJ’s history who were not research scientists. But NIJ is at a different point in its history now, and I believe we need a director that has strong scientific credentials.

TCR: Should NIJ have more internal research capabilities?

LAUB: Yes. NIJ and, for that matter, BJS should be used more as a resource by the Justice Department as well as by other components in the federal government. We should be able to respond more quickly, for example, to the Justice Department regarding current gun issues or the legalization of marijuana, but we would need more researchers on staff to be able to do that well. That would take a larger budget or a shift of resources from another area.

Ted Gest is president of Criminal Justice Journalists and Washington DC bureau chief of The Crime Report. He welcomes comments from readers.

Pennsylvania: Police Accused of Retaliatory Arrests By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: January 17, 2013 The Philadelphia police have shown a pattern of wrongfully arresting people who videotaped officers in public, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. The complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union was drawn up on behalf of a Temple University photojournalism student, Chris Montgomery, 24, who was charged with disorderly conduct for using his cellphone to record the police during a large altercation. The phone was confiscated and the video erased, the lawsuit said. The complaint is the first of several that the Pennsylvania A.C.L.U.

87 plans to file alleging retaliatory behavior by officers, said Mary Catherine Roper, a lawyer for the organization. It seeks monetary damages and confirmation of the public’s right to videotape the police, she said.

An Added Mission for Arizona Sheriff’s Immigration Posse: School Patrols

By FERNANDA SANTOS Published: January 16, 2013 GILA BEND, Ariz. — Dennis Donowick is a retired truck driver who refused to spend the rest of his days “drinking beer and doing nothing,” as he put it. Four years ago, he packed his guns and his urge “to give back to the community” and joined Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s volunteer posse, a group best known for its supporting role in the sheriff’s immigration raids.

Last week, the posse, now 3,000 strong, added the task of safeguarding dozens of public schools to its portfolio.

Putting more armed guards in schools has been proposed by the National Rifle Association and others as a way to crack down on school shootings. Sheriff Arpaio put his own twist on it by simply ordering his posse to keep an eye on school grounds.

He rolled out the program less than a month after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, where a gunman carrying pistols and semiautomatic rifles killed 26 people, 20 of them children. The program was, he explained, “to protect our schools from the same type of violence,” though some people are questioning the risks of placing this responsibility in the hands of armed volunteers when it is taxpayers who would foot the bill for their mistakes.

State Representative Chad Campbell, the Democratic minority leader in the House, said the idea of arming volunteers to patrol the schools was “ludicrous.” In a column on Tuesday, E. J. Montini of The Arizona Republic wrote that the posse patrols were a feel-good program that did not do any good.

But Sheriff Arpaio said: “There’s a lot of talking out there. This sheriff does not talk. I take action.”

If a school finds itself under threat, the job of the volunteer posse is to “eliminate the target,” said Mr. Donowick, 58, using the military language for shoot to kill.

Every morning, the volunteers go out in cars and uniforms just like those used by the Maricopa County deputies under Sheriff Arpaio’s command; there is no way to tell them apart. They roll by, scrutinize the people around the schools, looking for someone they feel does not belong, like “a guy in trench coat in the middle of summer” or a driver sitting in a parked car too long, Mr. Donowick said.

88 On patrol one morning, he carried a 9-millimeter Glock in his holster. In the trunk of his marked Chevy Caprice, he had an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle similar to the one used in Connecticut. Posse members bring their own weapons and buy their uniforms. They receive nine months of training before hitting the streets, and those who are armed — Sheriff Arpaio said there were about 500 of them — must be recertified every year.

“I’m prepared,” Mr. Donowick said.

As he pulled outside Kiser Elementary School here, across from alfalfa fields and next to Interstate 8, he smiled and waved to a teacher and her students as they made their way to class. He talked about the “halo effect” of a marked sheriff’s car, which can deter some criminal mischief simply by its presence. “Prevention,” he said as he drove off, heading west to another school.

Sheriff Arpaio created the posse in 1993 to patrol malls during the holiday season, when thefts in parking lots are common. Since then, the volunteers have gone on to take detainees to the county’s jails, escort dignitaries and help deputies serve warrants and support them during raids. It has retirees, including former police officers and military veterans, like Mr. Donowick, who served in Vietnam. An investigation by a local CBS affiliate, KPHO-TV, revealed that several of them also have criminal records — for assault, drug possession, disorderly conduct and other offenses.

Sheriff Arpaio said that they are “disciplined accordingly” and that he has “faith in them, faith in the posse.”

It began patrolling 59 schools in unincorporated communities in Maricopa County last week. They are mostly small, rural places where the sheriff’s office was already providing policing services, so he did not need to seek additional permission to add the school visits to his posse’s agenda. He did not contact the schools ahead of time and he did not need money to finance the program because the members of the posse do not get paid for their work.

They are, however, insured by Maricopa County while on the job. Mr. Campbell, who has his own plan to protect schools and toughen the state’s gun laws, said of the posses that he was “not sure how effective” their officers would be by simply driving around the schools without being on school grounds or interacting with teachers and administrators.

On Monday, in her State of the State speech, Gov. Jan Brewer proposed adding more financing to a program that puts armed police officers inside schools, an idea that has strong support among Republicans and Democrats but still needs legislative approval. She also expressed opposition to arming teachers, a suggestion by the state’s attorney general, Tom Horne, in the days after the shootings at Sandy Hook.

In an interview on Tuesday, Timothy Ogle, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association, said, in a nod to the punishing rounds of state budget cuts school districts have had to endure for several years, that “politicians are

89 talking about more money for school resource officers, but they have yet to fund the basic needs of our children.” He added that he would rather see the districts work with local police departments to figure out the best way to protect their schools.

Mr. Donowick, a lieutenant commander in the posse who coordinates the patrols in 24 schools, steered clear of the politics of school safety, saying he was “out here being constructive.” His job, he went on, is an antidote of sorts.

“I’m the good guy who is armed looking for the bad guy who is armed,” he said.

EDITORIAL Gun Reform for a Generation The New York Times Published: January 16, 2013

We usually cringe when politicians drag ordinary people onstage for their events. But the four children who appeared with their parents and President Obama in the White House on Wednesday at his announcement on gun control proposals drove home the nature of the crisis facing the country. While guns and gun control have been a subject of debate among politicians and lawyers and lobbyists and pollsters and political groups in the center and on the fringes, our children have been living in a free-fire zone for sociopaths with virtually unfettered access to instruments of mass murder.

It is past time that elected leaders did something about it without worrying, as Mr. Obama said on Wednesday, about getting “an A grade from the gun lobby.” It has been a bipartisan betrayal of the public’s safety, the fault of Democrats and Republicans, and of a string of presidents who have said mournful things after the mass murders at Columbine and Virginia Tech and Aurora and Newtown but did not act.

Wednesday was the exception. One month after the Newtown, Conn., murders, Mr. Obama presented a comprehensive set of initiatives that was, for a change, structured around what needs to be done and not what political tacticians think the president could get a dysfunctional Congress to pass. Mr. Obama can be frustrating at moments like this, and his delivery today was as professorial as ever. But he stepped up to the broader issue before the nation in remembering the tragedy at Newtown.

“While there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil,” he said, “if there is even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try.”

•

Mr. Obama said he believes the Second Amendment bestows an individual right to own guns. We have disagreed with that position, but it is now the law as

90 judged by the Supreme Court, and as Mr. Obama said so passionately, it should be no impediment to gun regulation.

“Along with our freedom to live our lives as we will comes an obligation to allow others to do the same,” Mr. Obama said, noting that 900 people have died in gun violence since Newtown, a vast majority of them on the streets of “big cities and small towns.”

We have “the right to worship freely and safely; that right was denied to Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wis.,” Mr. Obama said. “The right to assemble peaceably; that right was denied shoppers in Clackamas, Ore., and moviegoers in Aurora, Colo. That most fundamental set of rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, fundamental rights that were denied to college students at Virginia Tech and high school students at Columbine and elementary school students in Newtown; and kids on street corners in Chicago on too frequent a basis to tolerate.”

Mr. Obama’s announcement was preceded by a blast of propaganda from the far right that his proposals would be confiscatory and tyrannical. Anyone who was paying attention to the news in the last couple of weeks knew that this was nonsense, and the proposals announced on Wednesday were not remotely similar to what the gun lobby wanted Americans to believe they would be. They will not limit any law-abiding American’s right to own guns for hunting, or sport, or collection, or self-protection.

The package is a mix of executive orders intended to tighten and heighten enforcement of existing gun laws and sweep away ideologically motivated restrictions on government action against gun violence, and new laws that will have to be passed by Congress.

Mr. Obama’s bills would require universal criminal background checks for all gun sales, doing away with the loopholes for gun shows, private sales and Internet sales that have exempted 40 percent of all gun sales from those checks. He called on Congress to reinstate and toughen the ban on assault weapons that was allowed to expire in 2004. He wants to restore a 10-round limit on ammunition magazines and to ban armor-piercing bullets that are used by criminals to kill police officers. The president asked Congress to pass a $4 billion measure intended to retain 15,000 police officers who are being laid off as states and localities react to the recent recession and to budget cuts from Washington.

Mr. Obama also issued executive orders to make the background checks system more comprehensive and strengthen enforcement of existing gun laws. He is ending a freeze on research into gun violence at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was imposed by lawmakers at the behest of a gun lobby that is terrified by the prospect that gun violence could be viewed, as it should be, as a public health issue. He also signed an order making it clear that doctors and other health care providers are not prohibited by any federal law from reporting their patients’ threats of violence and that the health care reform law “does not prevent doctors from talking to patients about gun safety.”

91 Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. acknowledged that getting any of the president’s proposals through Congress was going to be a herculean task. Mr. Biden said, “I also have never seen the nation’s conscience so shaken by what happened” in Newtown. We have hoped, too, that the murders last month would finally inspire action, especially if Americans pressured their representatives in Congress to do something about this crisis.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden will have to make good on Mr. Obama’s promise to do everything they can to fight for these proposals in Congress — and that will mean twisting arms and making threats to members of his own party as well as to Republicans.

The gun lobby is focused within the Republican Party, but Democratic lawmakers have also been to blame for failing to pass meaningful gun regulations. Already, some Democrats who should be strongest on gun controls are showing familiar signs of weakness.

Senator Pat Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will be needed as a leader in this effort but has been mumbling about the need to hold extensive hearings. And Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, was making ominous, cowardly remarks over the weekend about tailoring whatever the Senate does to what he thinks could get through a House dominated by the far-right fringe of the Republican Party. He has started to wriggle away from the idea of an assault weapons ban, for example.

This is not a time for lawmakers to do the politically safe thing or the N.R.A.- approved thing, even if they know it is less than needed. It is time to reach for big ideas and strong laws on gun violence.

•

This is part of a continuing series on the epidemic of gun violence and possible solutions. Other editorials are at nytimes.com/gunchallenge.

'Code Of Ethics' On Cards

PSNI document could provide template for early initiative by College of Policing.

Date - 16th January 2013 Courtesy of - Cliff Caswell - Police Oracle 9 Comments A code of ethics similar to the document used by the PSNI could be on the cards for England and Wales in future with the arrival of the College of Policing.

Chief officers believe that introducing a defined set of standards would set a national benchmark on what is expected of everyone throughout the wider Police Service – and give greater clarity as to what behaviour was acceptable.

92 Addressing the International Conference on Leadership and Standards in the Police, CC Alex Marshall – the newly appointed CEO of the College – said that he was currently examining exactly how to move forward.

He added: “We will consider a code of ethics – I will look at the Police Service of Northern Ireland example, which is impressive and needs further consideration.”

CC Marshall – who leaves his current role at Hampshire Constabulary for the new role in February – pointed out that there had recently been high profile criminal convictions, as well as misconduct cases proven against officers.

He said that the cases had created “a question mark” over policing in the minds of the public – which needed to be tackled both quickly and decisively.

The PSNI Code of Ethics was originally drawn up a decade ago and was revised in 2008. The creation of the document followed the setting up of a joint working group, involving members of the force and the Policing Board.

Human rights advisors were among the professionals who assisted with the process, which sets down “standards and behaviours expected of officers and how they should conduct themselves in this honourable profession”.

Terry Spence, Chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, said failing to comply with the code could end in disciplinary action for an officer.

He added: “The document is quite wide-ranging, and if a person fails to report a colleague committing a criminal or misconduct matter they could themselves face action.”

Issues of professional integrity proved to be a key talking point among speakers and delegates at the conference, which was organised by the Home Affairs Select Committee. There were concerns that standards varied from force to force.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said that his force had been in the spotlight amid recent racism allegations and the Plebgate case.

While several inquiries – the most recent of which was conducted by Lord Leveson – had identified that there was no endemic corruption in the Police Service, he said that lessons over relationships with the press and the acceptance of gifts and hospitality needed to be swiftly taken on board.

College Of Policing: Clarity Needed On Governance

Staff association says the governing board will need to meet and interact before picture becomes clearer.

Date - 17th January 2013

93 Courtesy of - Jack Sommers - Police Oracle The Police Federation has said it is too early to say how exactly the service should be represented on the College of Policing’s new governing board, after it emerged the staff association would have one representative compared with three for ACPO.

Julia Lawrence, the Fed’s lead on the College, said the 15-strong governing board is expected to have three ACPO officers on it but there will be only one representative for the federated ranks.

The Fed has nominated Mrs Lawrence – a Derbyshire sergeant with 14 years experience as a staff association rep – to be its representative on the board, though her appointment is yet to be confirmed by the Home Office.

The board has the role of overseeing the organisation’s commissioning process and holding CEO CC Alex Marshall to account.

The board, which has yet to meet, will be an interim measure before the Home Secretary declares the college a statutory body, which Mrs Lawrence said was expected to happen sometime in 2014, at which point the board might be reconstituted with different levels of representation.

The Fed had previously expressed concern over the level of ACPO representation on the board.

In written evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee’s inquiry into police leadership, the staff association said three ACPO officers were too many and unreflective of the service.

But when asked whether the Fed would seek more seats on the permanent board, Mrs Lawrence said it was too early to say and she would have to wait and see how the interim board functioned before making a comment on representation.

As well as one Fed rep, the college board is expected to have one Superintendents’ Association member and four Police and Crime Commissioners, together with three representatives from outside the Police Service.

Mrs Lawrence said the Fed has at this point also been offered one seat on the college’s professional committee – a separate entity to the board – but has requested to have three in order to have separate representation for the constables, sergeants and inspecting ranks.

The professional committee’s purpose is to drive and coordinate the development of national standards and it will work alongside the Chief Constables’ Council.

The professional committee is due to meet on January 24 for the first time.

94 The board, which will be overseen by a college chairman who has still not been appointed, is expected to meet in February.

A Home Office spokesman said the board of the NPIA, which is being dissolved and replaced by the college, had no Fed or Superintendents’ Association representatives and the new college board was intended to give “officers of all levels input”. He declined to comment further.

An ACPO spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the association had not designed the board’s make up.

Obama looks to fund study into link between gun violence, video games and 'media' By Kyle Orland17 January 13 Wired.co.uk All afternoon, my little corner of the internet has been blowing up with tweets, links, and email messages regarding President Obama's unprovoked and unnecessary attack on video games. The general consensus, judging from headlines and social networking sound bites, is that the president is singling out video games as a scapegoat, taking the side of politicians and lobbyists trying to sidestep the real causes of gun violence. After digging into it a bit, I found the real situation to be a little different.

Of all the 3,000 words President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden uttered during their nationally televised address today, only 16 dealt with video games in any way. Here are those words, highlighted in the context of the speech:

"And while year after year, those who oppose even modest gun safety measures have threatened to de-fund scientific or medical research into the causes of gun violence, I will direct the Centers for Disease Control to go ahead and study the best ways to reduce it. And Congress should fund research into the effects that violent video games have on young minds. We don't benefit from ignorance. We don't benefit from not knowing the science of this epidemic of violence."

This section of the speech refers to the fourteenth of 23 proposed executive actions Obama introduced 16 January, regarding an "end [to] the freeze on gun violence research." What freeze, you ask? As this LiveScience article helpfully explains, the federal Centers for Disease Control have been prohibited from funding studies that "advocate or promote gun control" since 1996, when Congress cut the $2.6 million (£1.6 million) the organisation had been using to fund gun injury research through its Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Further moves since then have prevented the CDC from even receiving federal crime data for gun research, and prohibited the National Institute of Health from doing gun violence research as well.

These NRA-backed moves and others have had a chilling effect on the CDC, stopping them from conducting any studies on the causes of gun violence,

95 whether related to "gun control" or not. That might include some studies on media effects, but more directly covers basic epidemiological research trying to statistically link gun ownership to things like local crime rates or other social factors. The Center for Injury Prevention and Control was responsible for Arthur Kellerman's somewhat famous study that found people with guns in the house were much more likely to be murder victims, which helped draw the NRA's lobbying ire.

It's important to remember this historical context -- which has very little to do with games -- when considering the next part of the president's remarks explicitly naming them. The White House's Gun Violence Fact Sheet goes into a little more detail on this portion, saying the president wants the CDC to "conduct research on the causes and prevention of gun violence, including links between video games, media images, and violence." The president is requesting $10 million (£6.2 million) from Congress for this research.

Note that, while video games are the only medium to get a specific mention here, "media images" are included in the request as well. That broad phrase could include everything from films and TV shows to magazines and books. So video games aren't being explicitly singled out from other media, as they have been in some other public remarks and legislative efforts.

Secondly, it's important to note that the $10 million being requested isn't solely for media violence research but is intended to cover all of "the causes and prevention of gun violence." Further in the fact sheet, the CDC is directed to "start immediately by assessing existing strategies for preventing gun violence and identifying the most pressing research questions, with the greatest potential public health impact" (emphasis added).

Despite video games' prominent mention elsewhere in the president's language, the CDC isn't likely to consider video games the most pressing cause of gun violence. That's because that effect is already well-studied and has been shown time and time again not to be a significant cause of real-world violence. Not everyone is convinced, for sure, but the scientific consensus is relatively settled. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia probably summed it up best in his 2011 ruling granting games full First Amendment protection:

"Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively. Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media."

So if this issue is really so settled, both legally and scientifically, why is the president specifically asking that part of this requested money go toward looking at violent video games and other "media effects" on violence? In a word: politics. Like it or not, video games have become a hot button issue in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. That's partly because the NRA has used the medium as a convenient distraction from the issue of gun control, but they're not the only ones. Senator Jay Rockefeller, a member of the president's own party, sponsored a bill last month directing the National Academy of Sciences to study violent video

96 games' effects on children (the bill stalled before making much noise). Bowing to political pressure from both sides, Biden met with representatives from the game industry last week in formulating his gun control recommendations to the president.

Making a brief mention of video game studies as a part of a $10 million funding request is a good way to pay lip service to these political concerns on both the left and the right without really making it a priority. If studying video game and media violence were actually a major focus of the president's gun control agenda, it would have a much more prominent place in both his remarks and his official funding requests. Instead, the real money the president is asking from Congress will go to more important things: $20 million (£12.5 million) for the National Violent Death Reporting System, $14 million (£8.7 million) for police and security training, $150 million (£93.8 million) for in-school mental health counselors, $30 million (£18.7 million) to develop school emergency management plans, and so on.

And lest you think the president is only focused on the negative aspects of games, consider that the White House recently hired a senior policy analyst in the Office of Science and Technology Policy to specifically study video games' beneficial role.

Sure, it's a bit galling that video games continue to be a political football that seems to be inextricably linked to violent rampages in our national discourse. And the thought of wasting any tax dollars on what is a thoroughly settled scientific question shows just how broken the political process can be. But let's keep things in perspective. Video game violence is an extremely small part of an extremely wide-ranging proposal by the White House to deal with gun violence on multiple fronts.

Ex-East Haven Cop's Sentencing Delayed After Emotional Testimony

By DAVE ALTIMARI, Hartford Courant 10:31 AM EST, January 9, 2013

The sentencing of former East Haven police officer Jason Zullo was delayed Tuesday after hours of emotional testimony during which descriptions of Zullo ranged from an attempted murderer to a "hell of cop" sorely missed by his department.

Zullo had pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and was facing a 1-2 year sentence. U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Thompson postponed the sentencing to give lawyers time to write legal briefs on the issue of whether racial profiling allegations made against Zullo in separate cases should be considered relevant under sentencing guidelines.

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Prosecutors and Norm Pattis, Zullo's attorney, have to file briefs next Monday. Thompson did not set a date to finish the sentencing.

Zullo's plea came from charges that he falsified a police report involving a chase of a motorcyclist. Robert Salatto had claimed that Zullo intentionally rammed his motorcycle several times, resulting in a crash that injuring him and his passenger.

Authorities have said Zullo then filed a report on the incident that never mentioned he rammed the bike.

Zullo was one of four officers to plead guilty in a federal civil rights investigation that resulted in both civil and criminal charges. In return for Zullo's plea to obstruction of justice, the federal government dropped the charges in the civil rights investigation.

The courtroom Tuesday was packed with East Haven police officers, some of whom took vacation or personal days to show their support for Zullo. Salatto and a number of Latino residents whose complaints started the government's racial-profiling investigation also attended.

Salatto described the confrontation with Zulo to Thompson.

"Zullo hit me again and again and again with his police car over the course of a mile," Salatto said. "This was attempted murder plain and simple with a 4,000 pound police car as the weapon."'

Salatto said he suffered 16 broken bones. A passenger on his bike also was injured.

"He made it seem we were carcasses that weren't welcome in East Haven,'' Salatto said. "Nobody is above the law and nobody is beneath the law."

Several people spoke on Zullo's behalf including Mel Cartoceti, an inspector in the New Haven State's Attorney's office, who is related to Zullo's wife, Lisa.

Cartoceti said Zullo pleaded guilty because he feared that if he was convicted he could go to jail for up to 10 years and be away from his children, ages 3 and 4, for too long.

"Jason is willing to give up everything he has worked for for 20 years for his children. East Haven lost a hell of a cop when he turned his badge in,'' Cartoceti said. ''I don't think the good guys got it right this time."

In emotional testimony, Lisa Zullo questioned the FBI's tactics when they came to arrest her husband.

Lisa Zullo told the court she was awakened by a loud noise and saw a

98 machine-gun-toting FBI agent trying to get into her children's rooms. She said she agreed to crack open the door so they could see her children sleeping.

"I'd like to ask why was it necessary to search our home like that and traumatize our children?" she said.

As she started talking about how suffering from a rare kidney disease makes it difficult for her to tend to her children without her husband's help, many in the courtroom could be heard crying.

"I know that it comes down to some point system that I don't pretend to understand," she said. "If you take away their father, it will affect our kids for rest of their lives. He is an amazing father and please don't take him away from his children."

Former East Haven Sgt. John Miller has already pleaded guilty in the racial-profiling case and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities and testify against fellow officers if necessary. In exchange, the government has recommended he get no jail time.

In its indictment of the four officers, federal authorities called them "Miller's boys" alleging that the three other officers took orders from Miller and together violated the civil rights of Latinos by targeting their businesses for enforcement and stopping them as they drove through town.

The two other officers, Dennis Spaulding and David Cari, are awaiting their trials. Spaulding and his wife attended the sentencing Tuesday.

In an effort to convince Thompson to give Zullo the maximum sentence, federal prosecutors want allegations of racial profiling against Zullo considered relevant conduct. Thompson allowed the owner of My Country Store to testify about East Haven cops targeting Hispanic customers at her store. He also allowed Rev. James Manship to read a letter from a New Haven man, who said that Zullo roughed him up in the holding cell.

Manship was not allowed to testify because he had no direct dealings with Zullo.

Pattis argued that weighing anything other than Salatto's case to determine a sentence would be unfair.

29 Belfast police injured while separating Catholic, Protestant crowds in sectarian flashpoint

By Associated Press, Published: January 12

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DUBLIN - Northern Ireland police fought day-and-night street battles with Protestant militants Saturday as a protest march to Belfast City Hall degenerated into riots when many marchers returned home to the Protestant east side.

The Protestants, who have blocked streets daily since Catholics on the council decided Dec. 3 to curtail the flying of the British flag, have frequently clashed with police in hopes of forcing politicians to overturn the decision. The street confrontations have stirred sectarian passions, particularly in Protestant east Belfast and its lone Catholic enclave, Short Strand, flashpoint for the most protracted rioting over the past six weeks.

Saturday's violence began as police donning helmets, shields and flame-retardent suits tried to shepherd the British flag-bedecked crowd past Short Strand, where masked and hooded Catholic men and youths waited by their doors armed with Gaelic hurling bats, golf clubs and other makeshift weapons. The two sides began throwing bottles, rocks and other missiles at each other and, as police on foot struggled to keep the two sides apart, Protestant anger turned against the police.

Police marched down the street with shields locked, backed by blasts from three massive mobile water cannons. Officers also fired at least a half-dozen baton rounds - blunt-nosed, inch (2.5-centimeter)-thick cylinders colloquially known as plastic bullets - at rioters.

After the initial two-hour clash subsided, police at nighttime confronted a renewed mob of Protestant youths on nearby Castlereagh Street, where a car was stolen and burned as a barricade. A police helicopter overhead shone its spotlight on the crowd, which chanted anti-police and anti-Catholic slogans.

Police commander Mark Baggott said 29 of his officers were injured in the two operations, bringing total police casualties above 100 since the first riots outside city hall on Dec. 3. The clashes have cost Northern Ireland an estimated 25 million pounds ($40 million) in lost trade and tourism and in police overtime bills.

Baggott described Saturday's police deployment as "a difficult operation dealing with a large number of people determined to cause disorder and violence." He credited his officers with "exceptional courage and professionalism."

The Protestant hard-liners, however, have accused police of pursuing heavy-handed tactics that have worsened the riots. Police have provided no casualty figures for civilians, who often avoid hospital treatment so that they are not identified as rioters and arrested. More than 100 rioters have been arrested since Dec. 3. The Associated Press photographer in Belfast, Peter Morrison, suffered serious injuries to his head and hand when clubbed by policemen on Dec. 3 outside city hall.

100 The Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party said 10 Short Strand homes were damaged during Saturday's clashes. Sinn Fein councilman Niall O Donnghaile, who represents Short Strand, said it was the 15th illegal Protestant march past the Catholic enclave since last month. He said the marchers clearly wanted to attack Short Strand residents.

"People do not come to 'peaceful protests' armed with bricks, bottles, golf balls and fireworks," O Donnghaile said of the Protestant marchers.

Belfast used to have a strong Protestant majority, but the Dec. 3 vote demonstrated that Catholics have gained the democratic upper hand, stoking Protestant anxiety that one day Northern Ireland could be merged with the Republic of Ireland as many Catholics want.

Sinn Fein council members had wanted to remove the British flag completely from city hall, where the Union Jack had flown continuously for more than a century. But they accepted a compromise motion that would allow the UK flag to be raised on 18 official days annually, the same rule already observed on many British government buildings throughout the United Kingdom.

Six NOPD captains win round in fight over being passed over By John Simerman, NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune January 17, 2013 at 7:07 PM

A half-dozen New Orleans police captains who were passed over when police Superintendent Ronal Serpas created 16 new commander posts in 2011 won a new shot Thursday to appeal the move. A panel of judges from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal found that the city's Civil Service Commission botched the case when they denied the captains without a hearing.

The commission's decision in December, 2011 to refuse the six captains an evidentiary hearing and dismiss their case was "arbitrary and capricious," the court found in a 5-page ruling.

The panel reversed the dismissal and sent the case back to the commission.

The six captains -- Norvel Orazio, Michael Glasser, Harry Mendoza, Rose Duryea, Frederick Morton and Jerome Laviolette -- claimed Serpas broke civil service rules with the appointments, seven of which went to NOPD lieutenants.

The commander posts, which the commission approved, came with a raise to a $69,000 base salary. Serpas said his ability to promote or demote officers into the new positions would help make the leaders of the city's eight police districts and other NOPD divisions more accountable.

101 The passed-over captains argued that the commander posts were actually new unclassified positions, and that the commission never conducted a proper hearing on the need for them under civil service rules.

The captains wanted an investigation into Serpas' creation of the posts, an audit of the positions and funding, examinations for it, and ultimately to have the commander positions scrapped.

"The captains look forward to finally having their day in court." - Attorney Raymond Burkart III The city argued that the positions were simply new classified job "assignments," and thus not subject to challenge. The commission agreed.

The appeals court called that questionable, saying the commission punted on an investigation to ensure "the integrity of the merit system" and to protect an "equitable relationship between positions in the classified and unclassified services."

Raymond Burkart III, an attorney for the captains, praised the ruling Thursday.

"We're incredibly pleased with the 4th Circuit's decision in this case, and the captains look forward to finally having their day in court," he said. "The court correctly recognized that part of civil service's job is to conduct these evidentiary hearings. Why Civil Service didn't still escapes me."

Within their first year, several of the new commanders faced suspension or investigation, a fact that Burkart noted when he argued for closer scrutiny of the appointments.

NOPD spokeswoman Remi Braden declined to weigh in on the impact of the ruling.

"This was a decision arrived at by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the Civil Service Commission. The NOPD will continue to follow direction from the Commission," she said.

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