Stories related to: police

A third key police officer was assassinated yesterday in the intensifying war between Mexican officials and drug cartels, the BBC reports. The deputy police chief of the border town of Juarez was killed when gunmen peppered his car with bullets as he left home. The head of Mexico's anti-kidnap unit was killed Friday, and the chief of police operations against drug trafficking was shot dead the day before. More »

A TV news helicopter has filmed six Philadelphia police officers repeatedly kicking and punching three suspects pulled from a car. The city's police commissioner said it "does not look good," but emphasized that the department "won't rush to judgment." Philly cops have been on edge since an officer was shot dead during a robbery on Saturday, he said, and one suspect is still being hunted. More »

A police trade show packed with Western goods is thriving in Beijing despite worldwide outrage against China, the New York Times reports. DuPont and Motorola are among big-name companies selling items like bulletproof Kevlar and wireless systems for cops. Washington, which forbids the sale of police technology to China, was shocked to hear about items on the show floor. More »

A New York judge yesterday cleared the detectives who fatally shot Sean Bell, but the NYPD is awaiting its own verdict, after the case provoked charges of shoddy undercover police work. The shooting “revealed significant deficiencies in supervision, tactical planning, communications and management accountability,” said the Queens district attorney. The case’s chief prosecutor added, “This was a slipshod operation.” More »

Rev. Al Sharpton blasted today's acquittal of three NYPD officers who killed an unarmed man in a 50-slug fusillade in 2006, CNN reports. "Justice didn't miscarry," Sharpton said. "This was an abortion of justice. Justice was aborted." Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged citizens to respect the “authority” of the court; meanwhile, the Justice Department is considering civil-rights charges, Reuters reports. More »

An explosion of violence in Chicago last weekend—three dozen shootings that resulted in seven deaths—and a quintuple homicide on Wednesday have local police struggling for an explanation, as well as a response. Crime usually jumps later in the year, the Chicago Tribune notes, when both the weather and gang activity heat up.  More »

The first cougar spotted in Chicago since the city's 19th-century founding ran loose around the Windy City over the weekend only to be shot dead last night in a North Side neighborhood by police officers who feared it was going to attack them, the Chicago Tribune reports. As the police chief puts it: "There was no way to take it into custody." More »

Police Tased Rays pitcher Al Reyes twice today in a Tampa, Fla. bar before arresting him for unlawful violence, the St. Petersburg Times reports. Cops say Reyes was celebrating his birthday when he picked a fight, took a punch, and "began to spit blood on the people in the area." Reyes expressed regret before tonight's game, saying, “I tried to have a good time on my birthday." More »

Motorists intent on avoiding tickets can now rely on a mobile phone service designed to warn them about radar traps and red-light cameras, the AP reports. Called Trapster, the service uses wireless Internet or a phone’s GPS capabilities to determine location, and gives users an alert if they are approaching a speed trap or camera. More »

Police didn’t need a search warrant to get a DNA sample from now-convicted murderer Altemio Sanchez—they just waited until he left a restaurant and confiscated his glass. That kind of sneaky DNA collection is going on across the country, and defense lawyers don’t like it, the New York Times reports. “The law cannot tolerate such back-door methods,” said one lawyer. More »

Two British police officers accused of failing to stop a young woman's "honor killing" are now facing a disciplinary hearing, the Guardian reports. After falling in love with a man not approved by her family, the Kurdish woman repeatedly told police of threats to her life and pleaded for help. Police dismissed her fears as melodramatic. She vanished soon after and her body was found stuffed in a suitcase. More »

The family of a New York woman who died in a holding cell at a Phoenix airport is suing the police department and city for $8 million, CNN reports. Carol Gotbaum became agitated after missing a flight last September and cops put her alone in a cell where she accidentally strangled herself as she tried to escape her handcuffs. Gotbaum, the stepdaughter-in-law of a New York City official, had been traveling alone to Tucson to enter an alcohol rehabilitation center. More »

A flying spy drone may soon join the ranks of Miami's finest, pending FAA approval of the 14-pound bot. "Our intentions are to use it only in tactical situations as an extra set of eyes," says a department spokesman. The US military has been using spy drones for years, reports Reuters, and police departments around the country are interested in pressing them into service. More »

Cops in Los Angeles are more likely to die by their own hand than from a criminal's bullet, the Los Angeles Times reports. Psychologists trying to improve the LAPD's suicide prevention efforts found that 19 police officers in the city killed themselves between 1998 and 2007, while just seven died on the job. The police say the nature of the work is often to blame. More »

A Florida man died yesterday after Broward County deputies Tased him for being "naked and belligerent" in public, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. Paramedics said James Garland, 41, was too violent to treat after being zapped, so deputies drove him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Family members say they may file suit against the sheriff's office. More »

Dash-cam videos that show the South Carolina Highway Patrol ramming black suspects with patrol cars and using racial slurs have triggered a federal probe, the State reports. In one of the five incidents, a trooper sent a suspect flying with his cruiser and then told a fellow officer, "Yeah, I hit him. I was trying to hit him." The state's US attorney is investigating.   More »

Wild boars wreaked havoc in a German town this weekend, attempting to shop for hardware, go to church, and do some gardening, Der Spiegel reports. One of the beasts, acting like "an elephant in a porcelain store," was eventually cornered at the checkout of the home-improvement center, police said. They shot that boar, and the others escaped to the wild. More »

Memphis police collared a man yesterday and charged him in a mass killing that shocked the city last weekend. Jessie Dotson, 33, allegedly shot his brother Cecil, 30, in an argument and then murdered five possible witnesses. “When Jessie left, he believed everyone in the home was dead,” a police director said. “But as we know, through the grace of God, three children survived.” More »

Law enforcement agencies all over the country are building a new information "dragnet" that will dramatically boost data-sharing,  the Washington Post reports. This month the Justice Department will begin hooking up local and county police forces to the new federal National Data Exchange, creating a "one-stop-shop" that will let investigators search millions of records in seconds and make previously unsuspected connections. More »

Brian Bates captures unsuspecting people on candid camera, but his subjects don’t have reason to smile: He’s the self-proclaimed Video Vigilante of Oklahoma City, capturing men consorting with prostitutes and then posting the videos online. “If you get caught by the cops, you pay a fine,” Bates said. “If you get caught by me, you get a life sentence.” More »