They may not be of a baby panda sneezing, but they’re still pretty awesome! Take a few minutes to check out our new “everything you wanted to know about IPMA-HR’s assessment products in two minutes” video and our new “everything you wanted to know about IPMA-HR’s fire service products in just over a minute” video. You won’t regret it. We promise, it’s better than “CATS.”
Woohoo! The new Assessment Services catalog is available online for viewing — or download your very own copy! What’s new? SO MUCH! I can’t even tell you how cool it is. You really should see for yourself.
Well, okay, here’s a sneak peak: new tests (paging Public Works …), new services (I can take my test from where?!), new and updated publications (setting that passpoint like a pro now!) and new ways to communicate with you (your awesome sense of humor is now available on social media?!) — oh, my!
Check it out! Tell your friends! Tell your dog! Tell your friends and your dog. It’s that awesome.
From NBC News
WASHINGTON — The House passed The First Step Act — the bipartisan criminal justice reform bill — by an overwhelming margin on Thursday, sending the legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.
The House passed the bill by a 358 to 36 margin after the Senate passed it earlier this week by an 87 to 12 margin.
Soon after its passage, Trump tweeted that the measure represented a “great” bipartisan achievement.
Read the full article here.
From the New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday the most substantial changes in a generation to the tough-on-crime prison and sentencing laws that ballooned the federal prison population and created a criminal justice system that many conservatives and liberals view as costly and unfair.
The First Step Act would expand job training and other programming aimed at reducing recidivism rates among federal prisoners. It also expands early-release programs and modifies sentencing laws, including mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, to more equitably punish drug offenders.
But the legislation falls short of benchmarks set by a more expansive overhaul proposed in Congress during Barack Obama’s presidency and of the kinds of changes sought by some liberal and conservative activists targeting mass incarceration.
House leaders have pledged to pass the measure this week, and President Trump, whose support resuscitated a yearslong overhaul effort last month, said he would sign the bill.
Read the full article here. Additionally, the American Jail Association has set up an informational website on the bill.
Bangor Daily News | A crew from the York Village Fire Department may have been the most welcome people in Lawrence and North Andover, Massachusetts, Thursday night, as they worked to feed upward of 500 firefighters, police officers, ambulance workers and other first responders battling multiple fires in a three-town area.
metro.us | On Sept. 12, 75 members of the elite Police Highway Patrol Motorcycle Drill Team displayed their finery during a pep rally to raise awareness of the upcoming Hero Thrill Show, to be held on Sept. 22 in South Philadelphia. Sixty-four years running, the Hero Thrill Show helps raise funds to educate the children of fallen heroes.
Firehouse | Town of Oneonta Fire District commissioners voted Thursday night 3 to 2 for dissolution, turning the job of negotiating a fire protection contract over to the Oneonta Town Board, which objects to the step.
ABC 7 News | Former Chicago Bears star running back Matt Forte says he has a whole new respect for police officers after going for a ride-along on the South Side in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood. “The narrative, even to the young kids is that, all police officers are bad, and that’s not the case, so we gotta find some common ground,” Forte said.
The Citizen | The Peachtree City (PTC) Police Department and members of the community lent a hand to those impacted by Hurricane Florence by collecting 21.5 tons of needed goods that were shipped to North Carolina on Sept. 19.
CorrectionsOne | In a major victory for civil rights groups, a federal judge has banned Dallas County from using a predetermined schedule to set bail without considering other amounts or alternatives that would allow the suspects’ release from jail. Though U.S. District Judge David Godbey’s order is temporary, his ruling Thursday indicated that the groups that sued the county earlier this year “are substantially likely to prevail on the merits” of their arguments.
The Press-Enterprise | Seventeen of the 28 cities located in Riverside County have a contract with the Riverside Sheriff’s Department. All are happy with the services they receive, but none are happy with the cost. But county officials say if anything, it’s the county that’s been getting a raw deal. County government, they say, isn’t getting enough to cover the cost of sheriff’s services to cities.
Emergency Management | Since the program’s launch on June 25, 299 text messages had been sent to dispatchers across the county as of Aug. 21, although Koenig noted that figure includes test messages that were used in training. The sheriff’s office said that as of Aug. 21, it had received 23 emergency calls that originated as texts since the program’s launch.
WFLA | One police officer is watching out for the kids he serves, most of them Hispanic and Spanish speakers, by getting them off the streets and into the ring. He has the community saying Vamos Tampa Bay. He’s training kids to fight. In the ring and in life.
The Wichita Eagle | After a convict on a crime spree shot Deputy Robert Kunze above his protective vest and before the mortally wounded deputy collapsed, the lawman managed to kill his attacker. If Kunze had not kept fighting in his dying moments, Sheriff Jeff Easter says, at least two other people could have been murdered.
The Council of State Governments Justice Center | While many policymakers are keenly aware of how spending on prisons has changed over the last 10 years, they often know less about how spending on probation and parole supervision has changed or what recidivism outcomes are for people leaving prison or starting probation.
NJ.com | NJ Transit Police along with other first responders have used the overdose drug Narcan to save the lives of 100 people this year who were overdosing on opioids, agency officials said.
government technology | Both Gilbert and Chandler have grown so explosively that their police and fire departments no longer can rely on other municipalities to train officers and firefighters. As a result, Chandler opened the first phase of its new public safety training complex – a $26.3 million facility – in July.
KTUU | Gov. Bill Walker said Wednesday that Alaska State Troopers will get a 7.5 percent raise later this week, and another 7.5 percent if the Alaska Legislature approves the increase next session. … “For me it was a retention crisis,” Walker said. “When we have wonderful, dedicated law enforcement officers, troopers, that are going elsewhere because it’s better pay, better benefits, I pay close attention to that.”
KOB 4 | Since July, the police department has lost more than 12 officers, some of them went to APD, which pays more. A starting wage for a Santa Fe police officer is $19 per hour. At APD, the starting wage is $29 per hour.
(For more on this, see: “Santa Fe, Calif., Police Department to City Council: We’re ‘Bleeding out Officers‘”)
government technology | California’s National City police and fire departments have a new type of tool: drones intended to provide officers and firefighters a bird’s-eye view for public safety efforts, such as to find a missing person, document a crime scene or assess a fire.
IAFCTV | At FRI 2018, IAFC TV spoke with Chief Deryn Rizzi about some of the important issues in the fire service right now surrounding the topic of human relations and the initiatives the committee will take on during her tenure.
FireRescue1 | Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña on Tuesday warned of dire consequences — including possible layoffs of more than 800 firefighters and deferred maintenance or upgrades on aging equipment, if voters approve the firefighters’ pay parity initiative on the November ballot.
Police Magazine | Kazz wrote on Facebook, “An elderly woman came into my station today and gave me $3 in change to put on her gas pump. A police officer was standing behind her and happened to hear the amount and saw she was using a cane, struggling to walk back to her car. He went outside and told her to sit in the car as he would pump the gas for her. After a few minutes of getting to know one another he realized she was really struggling and didn’t have any gas or money left.”
The Sentinel Echo | Some solutions are expected to come from 2017 Senate Bill 120, sponsored by Rep. Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton. The legislation, now law, is expected to reduce the inmates in Kentucky jails and prisons through alternative sentencing–including reentry programs–and so-called prison industry enhancement programs.
Journal Star | The calls instead went to other departments staffed by trained volunteers, either personally selected by a fire officer on scene or according to a predetermined order on file with the agencies and dispatchers, contradicting the most basic tenets of firefighting.
The Sacramento Bee | A McClatchy investigation found that large stretches of rural California — where county sheriffs are the predominant law enforcement agencies and towns often run only a few blocks — do not have enough sworn deputies to provide adequate public safety for the communities they serve.
CorrectionsOne | In this episode of Tier Talk, Anthony Gangi discusses the difference between influence and control, particularly when it comes to prison gangs.
The Philadelphia Inquirer | … And as the calls pour in, the county — like so many other counties and states nationwide — has grappled with a dire shortage of 911 call-takers and dispatchers, jobs with long hours, high stress and a salary that nets less than $45,000 in Montgomery County.
Governing Magazine | The workload of fire departments has grown substantially, even as their core mission — putting out fires — has dwindled. “Communities tend to lean on the fire service in times of crisis,” says Charlottesville Fire Chief Andrew Baxter. “People are looking to the fire service for leadership and partnership for all aspects of emergency response.”
PoliceOne | Unfortunately, it’s not the program’s success as a component of an overall community policing model, but rather the alarming rise in the lethality and frequency of school shootings that has been a major driving factor for requests for SROs in our schools. These requests come not only from law enforcement agencies with established SRO programs, but from elected officials, school officials and the public who may not be aware of the many facets of an SRO program.
CorrectionsOne | You represent your agency every time you don your uniform, and your social media presence does the same thing. If a citizen sees a derogatory image on a CO’s Facebook page, he or she wonders, “Is the whole agency like that?” COs who think there is privacy when posting content online are sadly mistaken.
First Coast News | Therapy dogs help 911 dispatchers at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office process their emotions after dealing with a deadly mass shooting on Sunday.
PoliceOne | Addressing the opioid epidemic requires a coordinated and collaborative effort by police and other first responders. New approaches must expand beyond simple street enforcement and detaining subjects for possession or transporting them to the hospital after an overdose. This will require detailed information sharing and cooperation between police, public safety agencies, hospital personnel, fire and EMS.
WUWM | Last year, the ACLU sued the city of Milwaukee, based on the police department’s stop-and-frisk program. An analysis of police stops in Milwaukee found significant racial bias in who was being stopped and the areas where these stops were occurring. A settlement was reached in July.
FireRescue1 | According to a press release, the Public Safety Answering Points Operations Grant, administered by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, will be allocated to 57 counties and New York City to allow them to improve dispatch operations and 911 response.
Police Magazine | The president of the Ontario Provincial Police Association is urging members to seek help to deal with trauma they experience on the job after learning that three officers in the force took their lives over a three-week time period, according to CTV News Toronto.
CorrectionsOne | Approaches to a contraband control module will vary, with the institutional training officer and warden having the final say on specifics. The main goal for any corrections facility is a well-prepared body of staff willing and capable of identifying, removing and documenting contraband in order to maintain a safe facility. Here are the top five contraband control concepts.
Police Magazine | Police in a variety of places have talked about trepidation to act when action is the only reasonable response. They have spoken about fearing the aftermath of a deadly force encounter more than the incident itself. The author of the article speaks of two serious ramifications of this hesitancy.
FireFighting News | From The Mercury News … Santa Clara County firefighters deployed to the two Mendocino Complex fires experienced internet speeds slashed to 1/200 that of previous speeds by Verizon. Despite multiple requests to Verizon to turn off the throttling — the slowing down of data speeds — in order to communicate with other firefighters, Verizon did not do so and even suggested the department should pay more for a better data plan during the fire, according to Bowden.
CorrectionsOne | In this episode of Tier Talk, Anthony Gangi discusses whether corrections officers should or shouldn’t follow up on charges that they write.
We have two for you this week, both from firefighters.
FireRescue1 | In Shaker Heights, Ohio, two children, aged 7 and 10, were rescued by a group of firefighters from quicksand-like mudflats at Horseshoe Lake. “We’ve practiced for it. We had everything we needed,” Chief Patrick Sweeney said. “These kids, they stayed calm, which really helped us out a lot.”
FireRescue1 | We’re including this story in our Hero Highlight because this man (Phil Hall) had the courage to speak up about his personal experience of seeking treatment for his suicidal thoughts — and did so in an effort to help others. “The stuff just starts piling up, right?” he said. “(You think) the only way to stop all the nightmares, the flashbacks, and all the other life stresses that pile up on you is to tap out.” Hall is now urging other firefighters to not feel ashamed and to seek help in dealing with the high stress that come with the job.
The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology | … This study reports the findings of a randomized controlled trial involving more than 400 police officers in Las Vegas, Nevada. We find that officers equipped with body-worn cameras [BWC] generated fewer complaints and use of force reports relative to officers without cameras. BWC officers also made more arrests and issued more citations than their non-BWC counterparts. …
FireRescueOne | The substantial constancy of service by Baby Boomers is diminishing with their inevitable departure. At the same time, bereft of social baggage, a new generation of firefighters is gaining a necessary foothold in today’s firehouse. As swing music is to rock and roll, is to rap, there is the predictable breach in generational crossover messaging.
PoliceOne | To help alleviate a slew of problems that come with over-jailing or over-hospitalizing people who have a mental illness, the sheriff’s department unveiled a Telepsychiatry pilot program. Since its launch in December, the program has garnered attention from California to Canada. Harris County officials believe it’s one of the first programs of its kind, if not the first program of its kind.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch | On Tuesday a jury awarded $113.7 million to Missouri prison guards as compensation for unpaid work that they performed before and after their shifts — both straight time and overtime. The class action lawsuit in Cole County Circuit Court represents 13,000 current corrections officers or those who worked at the Department of Corrections since 2007.
FireRescue1 | In this session at Fire-Rescue International, “Doing More With Less: How Leadership and Risk Management Provide Tenfold Results,” risk management guru Gordon Graham (Lexipol) and Deputy Fire Chief Billy Goldfeder, Loveland-Symmes Fire Department, offered leadership strategies for fire chiefs to effectively mitigate the risks of lawsuits, injuries, deaths, embarrassments, internal investigations and even criminal filings.
HERO HIGHLIGHT
We have two for you this week …
Fox10 News | Glendale police say officers were responding to a call of someone in crisis at a home when a father began pounding on the front door asking for help. Officer Jacob Gonzales ran to the front door where the father was holding the lifeless 2-year-old girl in his arms. The father was asking for help, saying that the girl had drowned in the family‘s pool.
FireFighting News | The youngest son of a deceased volunteer firefighter of the Sullivan County Volunteer Fire Department was able to carry on the family tradition of riding a fire truck to school in a show of support from the department.
PoliceOne
The Federal application period for the annual state and local Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) has just opened with an application deadline of August 22, 2018. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) will make up to 1,147 awards to local jurisdictions totaling an estimated $84.5 million.
The Augusta Chronicle
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office’s newest recruitment tool is a video produced by a pair of Grovetown High School students, in hopes of attracting more people to a profession having difficulty finding applicants.
Department of Justice
The Department of Justice is expanding the Tribal Access Program (TAP) for National Crime Information, which provides federally-recognized tribes access to national crime information databases for both civil and criminal purposes. Tribes interested in participating in TAP must submit the application by October 1. TAP allows tribes to more effectively serve and protect their communities by ensuring the exchange of critical data.
COPS
The Center for Court Innovation and the U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office developed this toolkit as a resource for communities that wish to implement police-youth dialogues. Drawing from projects across the country that use dialogues, the toolkit consolidates expertise, providing strategies and promising practices.
PoliceOne
On Monday, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law that will create a new scratch-off game, funds raised from the game will help the families of LEOs killed or severely injured in the line of duty.
PoliceOne
It’s become “a thing” with multiple mainstream media outlets picking up on the craze and reporting on their local agency’s entry into the challenge. Do they do anything to “move the needle” in reducing anti-police sentiment? Probably not (or at least, not much). But they do serve some purpose.
Minnesota Public Radio
AFSCME Council 5 Correctional Policy Committee, the union representing corrections officers in Minnesota prisons, demanded the state hire more staff to address what it calls unsafe conditions. The union stated “assaults on staff have skyrocketed since January.”
The Frederick News-Post
Rita Potter was having one of the worst days of her life when she met one of the kindest people she knows, a Frederick County sheriff’s deputy named Bryce McGuire.
Quiet Warrior blog
When Austin PD Officer Jason Borne responded to a call this summer about a pedestrian in a busy roadway, he had no idea it would become an opportunity to make a big difference for a struggling single mother of two.