Category Archives: Police

FBI investigating shooting death of Native man by border patrol in Arizona

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Raymond Mattia of the Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona was shot by agents after calling them for assistance

The FBI and Tohono O’odham Nation police are investigating the fatal shooting of a tribal member by US border patrol agents in southern Arizona.

Federal Customs and Border Protection officials said agents from the Ajo border patrol station “were involved” in a fatal shooting on the Tohono O’odham reservation near Ajo at about 10pm on Thursday. They haven’t released any additional information other than to say the encounter was under review by Customs and Border Protection’s office of professional responsibility, which investigates fatal shootings carried out by agents, among other cases.

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Former Met PC says she made mistakes on Wayne Couzens flashing case

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Samantha Lee tells hearing she could not have prevented kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard

The former Met police officer accused of botching the Wayne Couzens flashing case has admitted she made some mistakes, but said nothing she could have done would have changed the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

Samantha Lee has been accused of conducting an “extremely poor” investigation after Couzens, 50, exposed himself to female staff at a drive-through McDonald’s in Kent on 14 and 27 February 2021, a police disciplinary hearing was told.

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Police assessment places violence against women and girls on same footing as terrorism

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First official document on VAWG in England and Wales is similar to those used for threats such as serious organised crime, say chiefs

Police chiefs have issued the first official assessment of violence against women and girls in the UK, placing such offences on the same footing as terrorism and serious organised crime.

The 230-page intelligence document outlining the crimes that pose the greatest threats to women and girls has been shared with all forces by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

Domestic abuse.

Rape and serious sexual offences.

Child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Tech-enabled VAWG, such as online stalking and harassment.

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Ministers looking at body-worn facial recognition technology for police

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Government’s intentions revealed in document produced for surveillance camera commissioner

Ministers are calling for facial recognition technology to be “embedded” in everyday policing, including potentially linking it to the body-worn cameras officers use as they patrol streets.

Until now, police use of live facial recognition in England and Wales has been limited to special operations such as football matches and public events such as the coronation.

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Hertz apologizes after refusing rental car to Puerto Rican customer

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A worker at the rental chain demanded to see the American man’s passport, apparently unaware that the island is part of the US

The US rental car giant Hertz has apologized and pledged to retrain its staff after an employee denied a Puerto Rican customer a prepaid vehicle on the mistaken belief that he was from a foreign country and needed a passport.

During the encounter with the customer at New Orleans’s Louis Armstrong international airport, the Hertz employee also called over a law enforcement officer even though Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898 and has a (non-voting) member of Congress, according to a stunning report the CBS correspondent David Begnaud published on Twitter and Instagram late Saturday.

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Woman in Cornwall died four months after reporting rape, inquest hears

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Coroner raises concerns over police and mental health services’ response to case of Tamsin Dolamore

A senior coroner has expressed deep concern over the way police and mental health services dealt with the case of a vulnerable woman who fell from a railway bridge four months after reporting she had been raped.

Tamsin Dolamore, a 24-year-old carer, was found on the tracks near a railway station in Cornwall and died in hospital the following day having sustained head injuries and had a cardiac arrest.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Sussex police ‘committed to solving’ Vishal Mehrotra murder case

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Father had criticised force for failing to reinvestigate killing of 8-year-old son who disappeared in 1981

Sussex police are to re-examine the case of a murdered schoolboy who disappeared on his way home more than 40 years ago.

Vishal Mehrotra, eight, vanished from west London in July 1981 and part of his remains were found in Rogate, West Sussex, seven months later. No one has been convicted for his murder.

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Police officer filmed appearing to punch man repeatedly in head during arrest in Wales

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Independent Office for Police Conduct has launched investigation into incident in Porthmadog

The police watchdog has launched an independent investigation after a police officer in Wales was filmed appearing to punch a man repeatedly in the head before arresting him.

Footage of the incident is circulating on social media and has caused considerable “public concern”, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said.

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Sheku Bayoh’s struggle in restraint may have played role in death, inquiry told

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Pathologist says struggle ‘has to be considered as being important’ in 2015 death in custody in Fife

Sheku Bayoh’s struggle while being restrained by at least six police officers should be considered a major part of what caused his death, according to the pathologist who examined his body.

The inquiry into Bayoh’s death in custody heard from Dr Kerryanne Shearer that the 31-year-old had taken ecstasy and another stimulant drug before being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on 3 May 2015.

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Scotland Yard admits failing to hand over documents to Daniel Morgan inquiry

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Met left dozens of documents in locked cabinet instead of passing to inquiry into its own corruption

Dozens of documents that Scotland Yard should have handed over to an official inquiry into its corruption were instead left in a locked cabinet located on the same floor as its commissioner, the Guardian has learned.

The revelation relates to 95 pages of documents the force now accepts it should have given to the Daniel Morgan inquiry, investigating the unsolved murder of the private detective and the role corruption played in shielding his killers.

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Met stands by officers after man Tasered and two dogs shot dead in London

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Footage on social media showed officers pursuing a man holding two dogs on a short lead along a canal in Limehouse

The Metropolitan police has defended its officers after a suspect was Tasered and two dogs were shot in front of screaming witnesses.

Footage posted on social media showed officers pursuing a man holding the two dogs on a short lead along a canal in Limehouse, east London, on Sunday afternoon. The situation appeared to become heated, as the man was Tasered to the floor and the animals were shot dead.

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Anti-coronation protest leader hits out at police over arrests

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Graham Smith said Met officers should hang their heads in shame after 52 detained in central London

Police who arrested anti-monarchy protesters before King Charles III’s coronation have “destroyed whatever trust might have existed between peaceful protesters and the Metropolitan police,” the chief executive of the campaign group Republic has said.

After six members of the group were arrested at about 7.30am on Saturday – before their protest had begun – and had their placards seized, Graham Smith said officers “should hang their heads in shame” and that police had shown “no judgment, no common sense and no basic decency”.

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Met police investigate more organ trafficking cases in UK

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Modern slavery team reveals further allegations of people being trafficked to London for body parts

The Metropolitan police is investigating more cases of organ trafficking in the UK after new victims came forward following the first conviction for the offence under modern slavery laws.

Detectives from Scotland Yard’s modern slavery and child exploitation team have said they are investigating more allegations of people being trafficked for their body parts to London and other areas of the UK.

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Police accused over use of facial recognition at King Charles’s coronation

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Met says technology will not be used to target protesters or activists, but campaigners say use is ‘extremely worrying’

The Metropolitan police has been accused of using the coronation to stage the biggest live facial recognition operation in British history.

The force said on Wednesday it intended to use the controversial technology, which scans faces and matches them against a list of people police want for alleged crimes and could identify convicted terrorists mingling in the crowds.

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Man shot in front garden of Liverpool house near home of Olivia Pratt-Korbel

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Merseyside police say people who use guns on streets should be treated like pariahs

Police have condemned the “pariahs” using guns on Britain’s streets after a man was chased into a residential garden and shot near where Olivia Pratt-Korbel was murdered.

Merseyside police said officers were called to reports of gunshots and screaming in the Huyton area of Liverpool at 9.45pm on Tuesday.

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‘We tried to stop her’: Kenyan teenager tells how cult starved his mother

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More than 100 bodies have been unearthed since church leader was arrested on suspicion of luring his followers to their deaths

Two years ago, Issa Ali’s mother took all her belongings and left her family to join followers of the charismatic church leader Paul Mackenzie Nthenge in the Shakahola forest in south-east Kenya.

“He told them that’s where Jesus’ second coming will happen,” the 16-year-old said.

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UN group to tour Los Angeles jails accused of ‘squalid, inhumane’ conditions

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Advocates say it will cast welcome attention on a system mired in scandals of prisoner mistreatment and racial injustice

A United Nations human rights group is touring Los Angeles county jails on Friday, bringing international scrutiny to a detention system criticized for overcrowding, mistreatment and abuse of people with mental illnesses, and conditions described by civil rights groups as “barbaric”.

A panel of experts appointed by the UN human rights council and formed after the murder of George Floyd is visiting LA as part of a two-week trip to cities across the US examining racial justice and police violence. In California, the investigators will meet with families of people killed by police and formerly incarcerated people. They will also enter the LA county jail system, the largest in the country, which is run by the LA sheriff’s department (LASD).

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Sentence of Kenyan man convicted of role in Briton’s murder is quashed

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David Tebbutt’s widow ‘delighted’ as court rules conviction of Ali Kololo for robbery with violence was unsafe

A man found guilty of being part of a gang of pirates who murdered a British tourist 12 years ago has had his conviction quashed by Kenya’s high court.

Ali Kololo, from Lamu County, was convicted of robbery with violence in connection with the 2011 attack that left David Tebbutt dead and his wife, Judith, held captive in Somalia for six months.

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MPs vote to support the Illegal Migration Bill by 289 to 230 – as it happened

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Theresa May had warned bill will cause more people to be consigned to modern slavery while Geoffrey Cox also raised concerns. This blog is now closed

Q: [From Matthew Barber, the police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley] What can the Home Office do to cut bureaucracy for the police?

Braverman says, if someone is having a mental health crisis, there should be a healthcare response, not a police response. She says police officers are having to spend too much time in hospital with people.

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Community-led approach needed to tackle youth violence in UK, report finds

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Calls for police powers to be rolled back in favour of funding for youth services and mental health initiatives

A community-led approach is needed to tackle serious youth violence, such as more funding for youth services and mental health initiatives while rolling back police powers, a report has said.

​​Education is central to the fight against serious youth violence, which must involve an end to school exclusions and the removal of police from schools, according to Holding Our Own: A guide to non-policing solutions to serious youth violence.

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