Cop Who Harassed NFL Player Apologizes

(NEWSER) - The Dallas police officer who was suspended after stopping NFL player Ryan Moats, keeping him from his mother-in-law's deathbed, has resigned, the Dallas Morning News reports. Robert Powell said he made the decision “with a heavy heart and great sadness” and hopes the move will allow people “to better reflect on this experience.” Powell had said the scrutiny over his actions was tough on his family, and that he was “terrified” of being fired. More»

(NEWSER) - NFL player Ryan Moats said today he accepted the apology of the cop who stopped and detained him with a drawn gun in a hospital parking lot, preventing him from seeing his mother-in-law before she died, though his wife was allowed to go to her bedside. Moats told Good Morning America he hoped the apology was sincere, and added that he had feared for his wife's life. "I was afraid for her because, you know, he was pointing the gun at her." More»

Dallas police officer held Ryan Moats for 13 minutes outside hospital

(NEWSER) - A Dallas police officer drew his gun on Ryan Moats after the NFL running back ran a red light as he tried to get to the hospital where his mother-in-law was dying of cancer, the Morning News reports. Dashboard video shows officer Robert Powell held Moats, 26, for 13 minutes in the hospital parking lot, threatening him with imprisonment. “I can screw you over,” Powell warned. More»

Michael Meehan says other theft victims get same treatment

(NEWSER) - Berkeley's police chief is in hot water for sending 10 officers to find his son's stolen phone—with four of them spending two hours each of overtime on the case. But Michael Meehan says anyone else would have received the same assistance, and anyway, it's the field supervisors who decide how to assign cases. The chief tells the Oakland Tribune that 11 officers investigated two other iPhone thefts and six officers took on the case of a stolen iPad. More»

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel finds hundreds of cases wrongly downgraded

(NEWSER) - Milwaukee police Chief Edward Flynn had great news for the city in February: Violent crime had fallen for the fourth straight year. Except it hadn't, reports the Journal Sentinel . Its investigation found that the police department misreported at least 500 incidents since 2009. In many cases, aggravated assaults—which count toward the "violent crime" stat—got downgraded to simple assaults in the record books, even though they clearly met the more serious criteria. The newspaper had FBI crime experts review the cases. More»