Keep Bailing

An officer at the Santa Maria Police Department was fatally shot earlier this week when he was about to be arrested on charges. The officer, Albert Covarrubias Jr., was reportedly at the close of his shift at a DUI checkpoint when several colleagues arrived to arrest him.  A brief struggle ensued during which the suspect fired his gun.  Another officer on the scene  fired back, fatally wounding the suspect.

The LA Times reported the four-year veteran of the department was survived by his wife, father and sister.

It is believed the officer knew he was being investigated for allegedly having a relationship with a 17-year old girl.   The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department further Read more »

San Francisco Police Chief Greg  Suhr said that 70 arrests were made on outstanding warrants last week in a multi-agency sweep. All 10 of the city’s district stations as well as members of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department participated in the effort.

CBS San Francisco reported that 46 of the arrests were for felonies and the remainders were for misdemeanors.  Suhr said that of the arrestees had a warrant for attempted murder and that another suspect had been wanted for aggravated assault.  Another was for robbery, he said.

Similar sweeps are scheduled to take place in the upcoming months.

The San Francisco Police Department Read more »

The City of Richmond has broken ground on the new $134.6 million jail facility, which will replace the old facility that has been in use since it opened in the 1960s. The plans were approved in December by the Virginia Board of Corrections. The new facility is rated to house 1,032 inmates and is scheduled to open its doors in 2014. It is being constructed next to the existing Richmond jail.

The current jail is only rated to house 880 inmates, but that number has been stretched between 1,300 and 1,500 inmates total, at times. This has caused some concern that the new jail will reach capacity quickly. Mayor Dwight C. Jones has promised, however, that the new facility is Read more »

Tuolumne County submitted an application, along with seven others, in order to receive funding from the state for a new jail complex. County officials were hoping for a maximum $33 million for the project. However, the county ranks lowest in priority among the small counties that applied.

The total cost of the proposed project in Tuolumne County Jail is estimated at $48 million. The other counties that applied for the small county category of funding are Kings, Shasta, Sutter, Madera, Imperial, San Benito and Siskiyou.

There is only $102 million available from the state for county corrections projects and the eight counties requested a total of Read more »

The San Diego Police Department has announced that for the first time in more than 12 months that they are moving forward with hiring new recruits.  The annual starting salary for new recruits ranges between $41,000 and $50,000.

The process, said department officials, includes a written test, background screen, polygraph test, interviews, psychological testing and a physical test.  The latter portion includes scaling walls, carrying a 155 pound dummy as well as a timed-stair climbing test.

SDPD Assistant Chief Shelley Zimmerman said that the SDPD is currently “147 officers below budgeted staff”.

San Diego 10 News has reported that the department is Read more »

California’s prison realignment is continuing to cause waves throughout the state.  Most recently, it’s been reported that low-level offenders who previously helped clear brush and cut fire lines, will no longer be able to serve in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Conservation Camp Program after they’re transferred from state to county jails.

The primary mission of the Conservation Camp program is to provide agencies with an able-bodied, trained work force for fire suppression and other emergencies such as floods and earthquakes.

According to statistics provided by the CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in an average year, Conservation Camp Program inmates provide approximately three million person hours in firefighting and other emergencies and save California taxpayers more than $80 million annually, on average.

The challenge lies in that many county jails, such as Los Angeles jails and San Diego jails, are releasing Read more »

Los Angeles County has put together a seven-member commission that will investigate the county’s troubled jail systems. This will give residents and county officials a better understanding of what is going wrong and what is being done right under Sheriff Lee Baca.

The FBI has already been looking into allegations of misconduct by sheriff’s deputies within the Los Angeles County jail. There have been multiple reports of abuse and violence. There was even one instance of a rookie deputy resigning after his supervisor allegedly told him to beat an inmate who was mentally ill. Nearly 30 deputies have been disciplined for covering up abuse or beating inmates in the last two years.

The new commission has limited power. It cannot force Sheriff Baca to make changes or subpoena documents. Since Sheriff Baca is an elected official, the only way to get him out of office is through a vote by residents. It can, however, raise public awareness about the issues and put pressure on the Board of Supervisors and the sheriff to make changes.

Members of the new commission include Read more »

Almost all of the large cities in Orange County have seen a steady drop in crime rates during the first half of the year. Some of the cities have even been ranked among the country’s safest cities.

According to a study by the FBI, violent crimes such as rape, murder, assault and robbery saw a large decrease in the cities of Garden Grove, Orange and Santa Ana. This fall in violent crimes reported to the police is in line with the nationwide decrease of 6.4 percent for the first half of 2011.

One publication listed Lake Forest, Irvine and Mission Viejo among the safest cities. Forbes included the city of Santa Ana on its list of the safest communities in the country.

While violent crimes have decreased greatly, property crimes Read more »

Death Row mom Donna Larson-Doolin said that DNA and ballistics testing has finally exonerated her son.

Her son, Keith Doolin, was arrested and charged with the 1995 killing of two prostitutes and the attempted murder of four more.  He was 22 years-old at the time of his conviction and was eventually transferred from the Fresno County Jail to the San Quentin State Prison.

Keith has spent the past 17 years of his life awaiting state execution for a crime he says he did not commit.

DNA and ballistics testing have been requested since 1998.  Donna said that “after 17 years of wrangling with the courts, that DNA testing was finally done” and the findings clearly showed that it was not Keith’s.   The results of the ballistics testing also Read more »

The LAPD Habitual DUI Offenders Unit (H2O) is on the lookout for DUI offenders who are driving around on a suspended license. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, nearly 50 to 75 percent of all convicted drunk drivers will still drive even if their license is suspended.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission, it is believed that nearly 8 percent of fatal alcohol-related accidents are caused by repeat DUI offenders. Last year in California, 791 people were killed in alcohol-related accidents. This number has been declining due to increased public awareness and law enforcement.

The H2O Unit arrested 104 of the nearly 500 offenders that they had been monitoring last year. Just in the Valley this year, there have been 962 DUI accidents with four people killed. In 2010, there were 985 crashes with four people killed.

It is estimated that over 300,000 Californians have been convicted of three or more DUI offenses and Read more »