Despite the fact that no federal license plate legislation has been proposed, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has sent a pre-emptive letter to top Congressional lawmakers, warning them against any future restrictions of automated license plate readers. The IACP claims to be the "world's oldest and largest association of law enforcement executives."

Sarah Guy, a spokeswoman for the IACP, told Ars that current state and local restrictions have made the police lobby group concerned at the federal level.

"Last year during the appropriations process there was an amendment that would have prohibited fed funds to purchase LPRs or any camera that collects or stores license plate numbers," she said. "That didn't pass but we think that something like this could be tried again."

...

The cameras scan at an extremely high rate, usually around 60 plates per second. Law enforcement policies vary widely concerning how long that information can be retained. Different agencies keep that data anywhere from a few weeks to indefinitely. Some cities have even mounted such cameras at their city borders, monitoring who comes in and out.

In December 2013, the Boston Police Department indefinitely halted its use of LPRs following an investigation into their use by the investigative journalism organization MuckRock and the Boston Globe. The devices have also been banned in New Hampshire since 2007, and have a 21-day retention limit in Maine. In nearby Vermont, the retention limit is 18 months under a law set to expire this summer.

Meanwhile, in 2012, the Drug Enforcement Administration decided that it would reduce its retention period from two years to six months. In California, the wealthy Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park (home to Facebook) retains data for just 30 days, while the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) retains data for two years.

The organization failed to mention that it is often the case that nearly all collected ALPR data is innocuous.

For example, in Oakland, California, the police informed to the city council in April 2008 (after using four LPR units for 20 months), that it had read 793,273 plates, with hits on just 2,012 of them—a "hit rate" of just 0.2 percent. Despite this, in that same report, then-Oakland Police Department Deputy Chief Dave Kozicki (who has since retired) dubbed the ALPR setup an "overwhelming success."

There was only one problem: Months after the fact, the couple learned the substance wasn’t marijuana. A prosecutor dropped the juvenile court charge because the leaf had field-tested negative three times.

...

The events leading up the boy’s 364-day suspension began Sept. 22. The Bays said they’re still unclear about how or why school officials targeted their son — because they’ve heard three different stories about that.

“We know they relied on ‘tips’ that after the fact turn out to be less than reliable,” Williams said.

One was that R.M.B. was showing off the leaf on the school bus (which also transports Liberty High students) that day. The second was that it happened in a school bathroom. The third is that it occurred inside his homeroom class.

Word apparently made it through the school grapevine to Wilson, who took the Bays’ son out of gym class that day, along with his knapsack, which had been in an unsecured gym locker. They went to Wilson’s office.

There, Linda Bays said, Wilson asked their son “if he had anything he shouldn’t have. He said, ‘No.’ ”

...

“I asked, ‘Can I see the leaf?’ and the deputy said, ‘No, it’s already in evidence,’ ” Linda told me. “We have never seen the leaf. He’s been out of school for six months.”

The boy was immediately suspended for 10 days pending an administrative hearing.

That happened before Duis on Sept. 29 at the Bedford Science and Technology Center.
Wilson was there but the deputy was not, the Bays said. In the meantime they’d hired Bedford attorney Emily Sitzler to represent their son for that hearing and his later one in juvenile court. They paid her $1,500. (She didn’t return my phone call Thursday.)
Bruce Bays said: “During the hearing I asked Wilson, ‘What about the field test on the marijuana leaf?’ ”

The assistant principal hemmed and hawed “and finally he got around to it and said ‘I’m not qualified to interpret the results of the field test,’ ” Bruce Bays said.

The couple said Duis ultimately rejected Wilson’s recommendation for expulsion, but instead suspended their son for 364 days. The reason Duis cited in a letter he sent later was “possession of marijuana.”

...

Ian Anderson of San Diego told The Huffington Post he was sleeping in his home when officers pounded on his door at 5 a.m. Sunday over a domestic disturbance call. The 24-year-old man said police had the wrong house.

The knocking woke up Anderson and his 6-year-old pit bull, Burberry, who started barking until Anderson opened the door for the officers.

In a surveillance video obtained by HuffPost, one of the officers can be seen petting the dog. Burberry then runs over to the other officer, who backs away, drawing his weapon. Burberry keeps following the officer, and seconds later -- off-screen -- the cop fatally shoots Burberry in the head.

ortland police union president Daryl Turner on Monday decried a Multnomah County judge's findings last week that officers used excessive force in the arrest of a 16-year-old boy.

Turner called the ruling "unfair'' and "discouraging,'' and questioned the judge's authority to second-guess the officers. He also said the judge shouldn't have relied on what he characterized as "shaky cell phone video footage.''

"What is most discouraging is that when police officers respond to a call, those officers must now be concerned that someone sitting in hindsight, from the safety of a courtroom, will not only question their actions, but their credibility,'' Turner wrote in a lengthy statement to members of the Portland Police Association.

Judge Diana Stuart, said last Thursday in the case of Thai Gurule, a Roosevelt High School sophomore who had been accused of resisting arrest and assaulting and strangling police officers, that police used excessive force. She also said they offered contradictory testimony to the events captured on video. The 16-year-old was acquitted of all criminal charges.

Former Niles police officer is expected to be sentenced next month after being convicted of theft after he pocketed hundreds of dollars from the room of a man who had died at a Niles YMCA residence, prosecutors said.

William Christie, 53, was convicted Monday in a bench trial at the Leighton Criminal Court Building before Judge Angela Petrone.

According to prosecutors, Christie, of Niles, stole the money after he responded, while on duty as a Niles police officer, to a call Nov. 9, 2009, after a man was found dead in a room at the YMCA facility.

On his first day back from a mandatory leave for shooting and wounding a knife-wielding man earlier this month, a Wisconsin police officer shot and killed an armed suspect after confronting him following a chase, authorities said.

Kenosha police officer Pablo Torres returned from leave Saturday, 10 days after shooting a man who advanced on police armed with knives, the department said. While that March 4 shooting was investigated, Torres was placed on administrative leave by department policy in police-involved shootings. He also attended annual in-service training before returning to work last weekend, police said.

On Saturday morning, police chased a car driven by 26-year-old Aaron Siler, who was wanted on a felony probation and parole warrant, Lt. Brad Hetlet said in a statement. Siler crashed at around 9:30 a.m. and took off running.

When Torres confronted Siler, Siler "armed himself with a weapon" and Torres fatally shot him, Hetlet said.

A South Texas police officer, whose car was totaled by a freight train, will return to work Monday after she served a one-week suspension following an alleged drunken driving arrest last week.

Devon Brittany New, a 28-year-old officer for the Nixon Police Department, was arrested March 9, booked into Guadalupe County Jail and charged with driving while intoxicated, the Seguin Gazette reported.

At around 1 a.m., New had driven her 2015 Dodge Challenger through a stoplight in Marion and onto railroad tracks when the car stopped. A caller told Marion police that she escaped the vehicle before an oncoming freight train destroyed it.

A former Exeter police officer learns his fate after pleading guilty to having sex with a minor in the police explorers program.

Jeffrey Detwiler was arrested in 2013, he plead guilty last month to having sex with a minor and possessing a controlled substance.

A Tulare County judge sentenced Detwiler to 45 days in jail and community service as his punishment. The judge also ordered Detwiler never to have contact with the victim again.

A former North Carolina school resource officer and sheriff's deputy was arrested Monday on multiple sex charges involving a student.

Justin Calvin Dickinson, 37, was charged with sex offense with a student, statutory sex offense and indecent liberties with a child, SBI officials said Tuesday. He was jailed under a $1 million bond.

Dickinson was an SRO at Farmville Central High School about 15 miles west of Greenville. SBI officials allege Dickinson had a relationship with an underage student at Farmville Central High School that continued after the student left the school.

A local municipality appears to be breaking its own rules on speed cameras all the while holding residents accountable.

The City of Pine Lawn hit drivers caught by their speed cameras with a hefty fine but there were major issues with the enforcement.

More than one thousand people were on the Pine Lawn City Hall docket last week and in the last six months the city has taken in more than $150,000 from fines.

Some waited hours to pay up or face jail time but the city’s own ordinance calls that threat into question.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullough said “it’s a money grab, that’s all it is.”

News 4 requested a copy of Pine Lawn’s ordinance for speed cameras and came across three glaring issues.

The first, location, the ordinance says the cameras are meant for school zones, or areas with cross walks, but the camera at Natural Bridge and Rossiter is in an abandoned lot.

“I don’t know where the camera is situated, it may not be where the camera is situated, it’s more about where the camera is aimed,” Pine Lawn Prosecutor Anthony Gray said.

The ordinance also said the cameras should be labeled to alert drivers they are there.

The third inconsistency is that tickets sent to violators did not have photos to show the driver when and where they got caught.

“It says a copy of the recorded image should be sent to the owner.”
If the violator didn’t show up to pay, they were threatened with jail time.

An “investigation” that took place after the choking determined that Major did not violate department rules when he attempted to strangle a handcuffed 100 pound woman. Not only did they say he did nothing wrong, but the department went as far as saying that Sgt. Major “acted admirably” by subduing a completely non-violent Maldonado.

§ 552.006. USE OF SIDEWALK.

(a) A pedestrian may not walk along and on a roadway if an adjacent sidewalk is provided and is
accessible to the pedestrian.

(b) If a sidewalk is not provided, a pedestrian walking along and on a highway shall if possible walk on:
(1) the left side of the roadway; or
(2) the shoulder of the highway facing oncoming
traffic.

Police harassment. Accused of stealing my own bike. Show them pictures with me on it. Still not proof enough.

D.C. police must face false-arrest and other claims from a man who allegedly tried to film an incident of police brutality, a federal judge ruled.

William Kenley says the incident occurred outside his house when he saw several officers with the Metropolitan Police Department approach his friend on June 20, 2013, question him for no apparent reason, and then proceed to choke and beat him with a baton.

As Kenley used his cellphone to videotape the incident, the officers took notice, according to Kenley's complaint.

Kenley says Officer Brandon Baldwin charged him, knocking his phone to the ground. Kenley's mother then allegedly opened the front door of their house, and his dog ran outside.

Claiming that the officers had pulled their guns on him and his dog, Kenley took the dog into the house.

Kenley says several more officers arrived at the scene then, and that they decided to have arrested on bogus charges of assaulting a police officer.

While detaining Kenley overnight, the officers concocted a fictitious arrest report, according to the complaint.

Kenley says the officers took a witness statement refuting their claims, but that they left the exculpatory testimony out of the report until more than a month after the arrest.

An officer also allegedly informed Kenley's employer of the felony arrest, causing Kenley to face an unpaid suspension, according to the complaint.

Kenley filed suit a year to the day of the incident, nine months after the charges against him were dismissed.