Mom sues STL park ranger who shot son at Gateway Arch

Police reports indicated that 23-year-old Randolph Scott, who had been throwing barricades into the river with friends, attacked the ranger and even hit him with his car before the ranger fatally shot him.

In her lawsuit, Scott's mother says the ranger approached her son in a "hostile manner," and that the ranger was negligent and improperly trained and supervised.

She's asking for $10 million. 

| Sara Shepherd

KCPD puts freeze on hiring new cops

KCPD has stopped hiring new police officers, keeping 15 positions open, as the Justice Department investigates how the department hires and promotes, Christine Vendel reports. The freeze is a voluntary move. The DOJ announced last summer that it would look at KCPD hiring because the number of black and Hispanic officers is “lower than would be expected for an agency of this type.”

Kansas deputies start wearing cameras

In Butler County, Kan., deputies are going to start wearing cameras while they're on the job, the AP reports. It sounds like a test case at this point, though the sheriff's office does have 50 of the devices. They're voice-activated, and after a shift is over, the video is downloaded for storage. The police department in Columbia, Mo., has started using these kinds of cameras, too, though I'm not sure how widely.

This is the only time it's OK to run from the police

KCPD Friends and Family is having its annual KC Bike and Footchase this Sunday at Zona Rosa. This year's event will benefit an officer who lost everything in a fire.

And for my next trick ...

Australian cop loses his job after performing a "party trick" -- namely, using a bottle opener attached to his genital piercing to open a beer at an officers' Christmas party.

Good work, Officer Wadell

Chief Corwin's blog has a story about a KCPD detention officer, Tricia Wadell, who will be donating a kidney to the police chief in Carthage, Mo.

KCPD tries to find uniforms for Scouts

KCPD is collecting new or gently used Cub and Boy Scout uniforms for needy kids, Chief Corwin's blog reports. The department has a group of officers who work with scouts.

Court rules against former KCPD cops in Sofia Salva case

From Mark Morris:

A Missouri appeals court panel upheld Tuesday the firings of two Kansas City police officers who did not call an ambulance for a pregnant woman they arrested in 2006.

The woman, Sofia Salva, complained of bleeding during the arrest and later miscarried.

A three-judge panel of the Western District Missouri Court of Appeals found that the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners did not abuse its discretion in firing Kevin Schnell and Melody Spencer. In both cases, the court ruled that the police board acted on “competent and substantial evidence.”

Should police use "zero-tolerance" approach to arrests?

A few years ago, Baltimore told its police officers to make more "quality-of-life arrests" like New York City famously does. The mayor wanted police to monitor corners known for drug dealing, for example, and arrest people who hung out there for minor offenses, such as loitering or littering, the Baltimore Sun reports. There was a spike in arrests, and a lot of them didn't hold up in court. Naturally, there was a lawsuit, which Baltimore has just settled for $870,000. They've also agreed to retrain officers so they don't make unjustified arrests.

After Baltimore adopted a "zero-tolerance" approach, there was a drop in violent crime, but it only lasted a few years, the Sun reports. I'm not sure how it's held up in New York. I know there have been legal challenges to NYPD's use of stop-and-frisks.

Jailer who posed nude now on administrative leave

Posing nude for a Playboy Web site probably doesn't fall within department policy, the Washington County (Ark.) Sheriff's Department says.

The jailer, 21-year-old Jessie Lunderby, is being investigated for "conduct unbecoming of an officer" and for failing to get permission for off-duty work.

| Sara Shepherd

Cops fight layoff threats with advertising

A handful of police unions and associations are using ads and billboards to fight officer layoffs, USA Today reports. Here's a description of the campaign by the deputies union in Sacramento County, Calif:

The campaign includes a photo of a child with an adult's hand over its mouth and the words, "Your child could be at risk!" Another shows a masked man breaking through a door and asks, "Do you feel safe?"

In Stockton, Calif., the police officers association paid for a billboard that reads: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California."

Image: Screen grab from a union website in Sacramento County.

$100K grant for PAL football field

The Kansas City Police Athletic League is getting a $100,000 donation to build a football field next to its center at 18th and White. The money comes from the Chiefs, the NFL Youth Football Fund and the Greater Kansas City LISC. Plus, other donors -- Sports Turf Managers Association, Honeywell and Acme Fence -- are helping out, too. The field, which will be NFL-size, will be used by the center as well as nearby schools.

Olympian joins Raymore PD

If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out Laura Bauer's profile of Terin Humphrey, an Olympic medalist who's joined the Raymore police.

OP police chief starts blog

John Douglass, Overland Park's police chief, has launched his own blog, which you can find here.

The debate over civil forfeiture

The Economist has a piece here about civil forfeiture, a process that police use to seize cars, homes and other property that was reportedly used in a crime. The magazine argues that protections against abuse are practically nonexistent:

But the safeguards are slender. For instance, police can find a wad of cash in a car, claim that the owner was planning to buy drugs with it, and then seize it. The evidence may be simply that a dog smelled drugs; yet one test found that a third of banknotes have traces of cocaine on them. 

Supporters, though, say abuse isn't common. And they argue that civil forfeiture is a useful tool for police because it lets them hit criminals financially and take away their resources.

Mexican president targets corrupt cops

Mexico's president wants to get rid of the country's local police departments because they're so corrupt and replace them with state-controlled police. He's floated the idea before, but some of its opponents are out of office now.

Arrested for recording on-duty police?

Gizmodo and Reason have posts here about people who have faced criminal charges for recording on-duty police officers. One case involves an artist selling his work on a Chicago street, who was deliberately trying to get arrested so he could challenge the law in court. A judge has refused to dismiss a felony charge against him for wiretapping.

From Gizmodo:

The legal justification for arresting the "shooter" rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited.

Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested.

Reason points to the case of Michael Hyde, a man who secretly recorded a traffic stop in Massachusetts. His conviction on wiretapping was upheld by courts, who pointed out that secret recordings were banned by law. The Boston Globe had a piece earlier this year about others who were arrested for recording police encounters.

I'm still trying to find a police perspective on this. I can't imagine anyone wants to have everything they do at work scrutinized -- and from their perspective, taken out of context. But there have also been cases of police abuse that were caught only because someone had a camera handy.

Hat Tip: Saw this via Fark!

Police memorial services set for Thursday

At 11 a.m. outside its headquarters on Locus Street, KCPD will host a memorial service honoring the department's 119 officers killed in the line of duty. Expect some road closures in that area.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office will have another service a little later, at 2 p.m. outside their headquarters. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is scheduled to speak.

Cops mistook murder victim for dead deer

In Cleveland, two police officers have been suspended without pay for six months after they rolled past a woman's body and accidentally reported it as a dead deer. The city's safety director says they didn't do a good job patrolling their assigned area.

The officers are accused of driving past Bradley-Crockett's body at more than 50 mph and telling a dispatcher to have ODOT pick up the body of a dead deer.

They failed to slow or stop their vehicle ... or use their spotlight to confirm their observation," Flask said previously.

Bill would force police to shoot at suspects' legs, arms instead

In New York's legislature, there's a proposal that would require police to shoot at suspects' arms or legs, not center mass, if they feel endangered, the New York Post reports. They're supposed to use the minimum amount of force to stop the suspect. It's not clear how far the bill will go -- mostly because it's so ill-conceived.

In a life-threatening situation, it's incredibly difficult to shoot a suspect, period, much less aim for specific parts of their body.

Should reality TV crews ride along during police investigations?

Just following up on a post we had the other day: Detroit's mayor says film crews from reality-TV shows will no longer be allowed to go along on police raids. A crew associated with A&E's "The First 48" was outside recording during a raid where a 7-year-old girl was accidentally killed.

Should media ride along, film police investigations?

A few days ago, a 7-year-old girl was killed during a police raid in Detroit. It's not clear exactly how it happened. The police maintain that it was an accidental discharge inside the home, and the family's lawyer says police might have fired into the building.

The story has another wrinkle: A film crew connected to A&E's "The First 48" was on hand during the raid. If you're not familiar with the show, it's a reality program that documents the first 48 hours of a police investigation, which is usually a make-or-break time for detectives. In its ninth season, the show is very popular -- partly because the producers are given amazing access and show, in detail, how the police handle serious cases.

The crew's video from that night has been handed over to Michigan state police, though nobody knows yet if it will be helpful in the police review. It's raised the question whether it's a good idea to have crews following police around so closely. The AP has a good story about the issue here.

On the one hand, having cameras present can complicate matters for police. During the Terry Blair murder case, "The First 48" followed KCPD detectives, and the result was a very popular episode. But Judge John O'Malley publicly criticized the department for cooperating with the show and advised them not to do so in the future. (In the interest of full disclosure, Star reporters have occasionally done ride-alongs similar to the TV crews, though I'm not sure if we've done video.)

That was the first time I could find any local police getting rebuked for doing reality shows. Most of them go over really well. Besides "The First 48," there was also "Kansas City SWAT." And I know KCK and KCPD both have done episodes of "COPS." (The KCK episode is a personal favorite of mine.)

Capt. Rich Lockhart, a spokesman for KCPD, says "The First 48" has not been back since the Blair case, though the department hasn't said it would stop doing those sort of projects entirely. "COPS," for example, probably wouldn't be a problem because that show doesn't delve deeply into investigations.

A few departments, including Dallas and Memphis, have decided not to do any more "First 48" episodes. (Memphis, because city officials thought the show made it look like Memphis had a big crime problem. Dallas, because it's a lot of work to coordinate with the show, the AP reports.)

But there are a lot of benefits, too. The shows generally portray the police very positively, and they show how difficult investigating a murder can be. They're sort of an antidote to the "CSI" shows, where everything's wrapped up neatly in one hour.

WyCo to pay man hurt by fleeing car

Wyandotte County has agreed to pay $335,295 to a man who was injured by a car fleeing police, Dawn Bormann reports. Xavier Harris was 16 when the crash happened at Parallel and 22nd back in 2004. Police thought he was going to die, but he survived -- with permanent brain injuries. He sued the county, and a jury found they were 22 percent at fault. The officers' car didn't have lights or sirens running; the county argued that neither was needed because they weren't chasing the car.

KCPD gets new deputy chief

KCPD has a promotion ceremony scheduled tonight, and one of those being recognized is Cheryl Rose, who's becoming a deputy chief. She's the third woman to serve in that spot. She's replacing Rachel Whipple, who retired in May.

Could New Orleans cops be put under federal supervision?

In New Orleans, there's a very good chance that federal authorities could assume oversight of the city's police department, the Times-Picayune says. There are at least eight federal investigations of the police right now, and the city's mayor has asked the Justice Department to review the department's practices and policies.