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Texas Police Turning Into Mobile Debt Collectors
So warns the Electronic Freedom Foundation.
Two new technologies and one failed state program could make highway travel perilous for Texans traveling between San Antonio, Austin and Houston.
Law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction over I-10 east of San Antonio and I-35 between San Antonio and Austin have signed contracts with Vigilant Solutions, a license plate reader company, with the aim of stopping drivers who have outstanding traffic warrants.
The company's database syncs real-time license scanning with a government warrants database to ping police when a target approaches.
At the same time, a new law enacted in 2015 allows police to install credit card readers in patrol vehicles. The idea was to allow people to pay their fines rather than be taken to jail. Vigilant Solutions is piggybacking on that policy.
The company's contracts with Guadalupe County and the City of Kyle call for a 25 percent service charge, most of it payable to Vigilant, to be tacked onto the outstanding fines, putting a detained driver into bind: either pay all outstanding debts plus the service charge, or go to jail.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is warning that this turns police into mobile debt collectors for a private company, and raises questions about the legality of the surcharge, which hinges on whether the fee is "reasonably incurred in providing the access or service."
EFF posted a PowerPoint slide from a Vigilant presentation assuring officials that the charge could be justified under state law. The organization argues that the surcharge is not reasonable because it pays not just for direct costs, but the entire system.
Texas already has a problem with administrative charges tacked onto fines for motor vehicle violations. It's estimated that 10 percent of Texans have outstanding warrants – many of them unaware – because of the state's Driver Responsibility Program.
Since its creation in 2003, the program has billed Texas drivers more than $3.6 billion, but just half of that has been collected, according to the Legislative Budget Board:
_http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/Documents/Publications/GEER/Government_Effectiveness_and_Efficiency_Report_2015.pdf
"The Driver Responsibility Program was supposed to improve public safety," the Texas Observer reported. "Instead, it has saddled countless drivers with onerous fines, introduced a new form of double jeopardy to the legal system, stripped more than a million drivers of their drivers' licenses and—in a classic example of perverse incentives—decreased DWI convictions."
If you are convicted of any number of driving violations, or rack up more than six points on your driving record, you fall into the clutches of the program, and face additional fines of $100 to $2,000 every year afterward for three years.
The program has struggled with notifying drivers of their fines, leading to rampant license suspensions:
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/04/14/driver-responsibility-program-still-problematic/
As of April 2014, some 1.4 million Texas drivers had their licenses suspended for nonpayment:
_http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/Documents/Publications/GEER/Government_Effectiveness_and_Efficiency_Report_2015.pdf
Watchdog.org's reporting on license plate readers in Northern Virginia raised a number of privacy and surveillance concerns.
The Texas program raises even more, according to the EFF. Vigilant Solutions gets to keep a copy of all license plate data gathered by police. It also sent out an undisclosed number of erroneous warrant notices across the state last month, although the company denies that any "personal information was divulged to any unintended recipients."
This article originally appeared at Watchdog.org.
So warns the Electronic Freedom Foundation.
Two new technologies and one failed state program could make highway travel perilous for Texans traveling between San Antonio, Austin and Houston.
Law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction over I-10 east of San Antonio and I-35 between San Antonio and Austin have signed contracts with Vigilant Solutions, a license plate reader company, with the aim of stopping drivers who have outstanding traffic warrants.
The company's database syncs real-time license scanning with a government warrants database to ping police when a target approaches.
At the same time, a new law enacted in 2015 allows police to install credit card readers in patrol vehicles. The idea was to allow people to pay their fines rather than be taken to jail. Vigilant Solutions is piggybacking on that policy.
The company's contracts with Guadalupe County and the City of Kyle call for a 25 percent service charge, most of it payable to Vigilant, to be tacked onto the outstanding fines, putting a detained driver into bind: either pay all outstanding debts plus the service charge, or go to jail.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is warning that this turns police into mobile debt collectors for a private company, and raises questions about the legality of the surcharge, which hinges on whether the fee is "reasonably incurred in providing the access or service."
EFF posted a PowerPoint slide from a Vigilant presentation assuring officials that the charge could be justified under state law. The organization argues that the surcharge is not reasonable because it pays not just for direct costs, but the entire system.
Texas already has a problem with administrative charges tacked onto fines for motor vehicle violations. It's estimated that 10 percent of Texans have outstanding warrants – many of them unaware – because of the state's Driver Responsibility Program.
Since its creation in 2003, the program has billed Texas drivers more than $3.6 billion, but just half of that has been collected, according to the Legislative Budget Board:
_http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/Documents/Publications/GEER/Government_Effectiveness_and_Efficiency_Report_2015.pdf
"The Driver Responsibility Program was supposed to improve public safety," the Texas Observer reported. "Instead, it has saddled countless drivers with onerous fines, introduced a new form of double jeopardy to the legal system, stripped more than a million drivers of their drivers' licenses and—in a classic example of perverse incentives—decreased DWI convictions."
If you are convicted of any number of driving violations, or rack up more than six points on your driving record, you fall into the clutches of the program, and face additional fines of $100 to $2,000 every year afterward for three years.
The program has struggled with notifying drivers of their fines, leading to rampant license suspensions:
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/04/14/driver-responsibility-program-still-problematic/
As of April 2014, some 1.4 million Texas drivers had their licenses suspended for nonpayment:
_http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/Documents/Publications/GEER/Government_Effectiveness_and_Efficiency_Report_2015.pdf
Watchdog.org's reporting on license plate readers in Northern Virginia raised a number of privacy and surveillance concerns.
The Texas program raises even more, according to the EFF. Vigilant Solutions gets to keep a copy of all license plate data gathered by police. It also sent out an undisclosed number of erroneous warrant notices across the state last month, although the company denies that any "personal information was divulged to any unintended recipients."
This article originally appeared at Watchdog.org.
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Florida Officer Myron Pratt Recieves Award, Cop Convicted Later of Statutory Rape
Vero Beach PD give Myron Pratt an award for giving CPR to a fallen bicyclist. Less than 5 years later, Pratt is now a registered sex offender, and sentenced to 40 months in prison for sleeping with a 16 year old girl. He was also her teacher at a local community college.
Ex-Port St. Lucie police officer sentenced for sex charges
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — A former Port St. Lucie police officer has been sentenced for sex charges involving an underage girl.
The TC Palm reports 31-year-old Myron Andravious Pratt pleaded no contest Feb. 8 to two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
Pratt was arrested in November 2014. He was sentenced to 40 months behind bars for each count with both sentences to be served concurrently.
Authorities say the 16-year-old girl told St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office investigators she twice picked up Pratt at the Port St. Lucie Police Department and the two drove to a secluded area and had sex in her car. The first encounter was determined to be Nov. 17, 2014.
Officials say Pratt also worked as a Vero Beach police officer from 2011 to August 2013.
Vero Beach PD give Myron Pratt an award for giving CPR to a fallen bicyclist. Less than 5 years later, Pratt is now a registered sex offender, and sentenced to 40 months in prison for sleeping with a 16 year old girl. He was also her teacher at a local community college.
Ex-Port St. Lucie police officer sentenced for sex charges
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — A former Port St. Lucie police officer has been sentenced for sex charges involving an underage girl.
The TC Palm reports 31-year-old Myron Andravious Pratt pleaded no contest Feb. 8 to two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
Pratt was arrested in November 2014. He was sentenced to 40 months behind bars for each count with both sentences to be served concurrently.
Authorities say the 16-year-old girl told St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office investigators she twice picked up Pratt at the Port St. Lucie Police Department and the two drove to a secluded area and had sex in her car. The first encounter was determined to be Nov. 17, 2014.
Officials say Pratt also worked as a Vero Beach police officer from 2011 to August 2013.
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Cops raid building filled with armed thugs, find drugs and money, make no arrests.....well, because they are part of the shield, of course
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said Wednesday his office has taken the unusual step of raiding another law enforcement agency in the parish, citing missing evidence and “sloppy” practices at the Grand Isle Police Department.
No police officers were arrested after the execution of a search warrant at Grand Isle police headquarters on Tuesday, and Normand stopped short of saying he would bring criminal charges. But the sheriff hinted at broader potential misconduct among officials in the small barrier-island town.
He said his agency’s undercover drug investigations in the area over the past few years, which have resulted in dozens of arrests, have been hampered by interference from the Grand Isle force.
“The island is kind of the end of the world,” Normand said. “Everybody knows everybody; everyone’s related to everybody.”
Normand spoke about the probe at the same time he unveiled the news that deputies had arrested 14 people in the small town as the result of a separate narcotics investigation. Left unsaid was what — if any — connection there is between the drug cases and the Police Department. Eighteen people in all were indicted in the sting, including some of the island’s biggest methamphetamine dealers, officials said.
Grand Isle Police Chief Euris DuBois said he was shocked when deputies wielding long guns appeared at his office on Tuesday, and he rejected the sheriff’s allegations of sloppy evidence storage. He also questioned why the Sheriff’s Office, instead of an agency outside the parish, was leading the investigation.
“I just don’t know why the sheriff’s after me. For what reason I don’t know. I never did the man nothing. Always supported him,” DuBois said. “We’re all sick about it, the way Jefferson Parish treated us yesterday.”
The inquiry into Grand Isle police, meanwhile, could create headaches for the office of Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. Normand said defense attorneys seize upon issues like poor evidence and record-keeping on behalf of clients who have been arrested or convicted based on cases made by sloppy police work.
Connick’s office declined to comment on whether prosecutors are reviewing cases generated by the Grand Isle Police Department.
Read more
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said Wednesday his office has taken the unusual step of raiding another law enforcement agency in the parish, citing missing evidence and “sloppy” practices at the Grand Isle Police Department.
No police officers were arrested after the execution of a search warrant at Grand Isle police headquarters on Tuesday, and Normand stopped short of saying he would bring criminal charges. But the sheriff hinted at broader potential misconduct among officials in the small barrier-island town.
He said his agency’s undercover drug investigations in the area over the past few years, which have resulted in dozens of arrests, have been hampered by interference from the Grand Isle force.
“The island is kind of the end of the world,” Normand said. “Everybody knows everybody; everyone’s related to everybody.”
Normand spoke about the probe at the same time he unveiled the news that deputies had arrested 14 people in the small town as the result of a separate narcotics investigation. Left unsaid was what — if any — connection there is between the drug cases and the Police Department. Eighteen people in all were indicted in the sting, including some of the island’s biggest methamphetamine dealers, officials said.
Grand Isle Police Chief Euris DuBois said he was shocked when deputies wielding long guns appeared at his office on Tuesday, and he rejected the sheriff’s allegations of sloppy evidence storage. He also questioned why the Sheriff’s Office, instead of an agency outside the parish, was leading the investigation.
“I just don’t know why the sheriff’s after me. For what reason I don’t know. I never did the man nothing. Always supported him,” DuBois said. “We’re all sick about it, the way Jefferson Parish treated us yesterday.”
The inquiry into Grand Isle police, meanwhile, could create headaches for the office of Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. Normand said defense attorneys seize upon issues like poor evidence and record-keeping on behalf of clients who have been arrested or convicted based on cases made by sloppy police work.
Connick’s office declined to comment on whether prosecutors are reviewing cases generated by the Grand Isle Police Department.
Read more
Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland Indicted for Perjury and Fired
The Texas state trooper who violently arrested Sandra Bland, an activist whose death caused nationwide protest last summer when she was found dead in her jail cell, was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday for perjury. Following the indictment, it was announced that he has been fired from the state police.
Trooper Brian Encinia was charged with the misdemeanor for allegedly lying about how he removed Bland from her vehicle during the traffic stop. The same grand jury opted not to indict any sheriff's officials or jailers in Bland's death last month.
Bland was pulled over for an improper lane change on July 10, and the interaction quickly escalated to the officer brandishing his taser and threatening “I will light you up,” when Bland refused to put her cigarette out and get out of the vehicle.
Bland was then held in a Waller County jail for three days, unable to come up with the $500 bail. On the third day, she was found hanging in her cell with a plastic garbage bag around her neck.
The woman’s family and supporters have questioned the official suicide ruling, noting that she was about to start a new career. She had also been critical of police on social media.
Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis has maintained that there is no evidence of foul play, but a lawyer for the family is requesting all the evidence from the grand jury proceedings to conduct their own investigation.
Encinia had been on paid administrative duty since Bland’s death, and is currently facing a wrongful death lawsuit by Bland’s family. The case is set to go to trial in January 2017.
The perjury charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. The grand jury will not be issuing any more indictments and have concluded their investigation into the case.
#WOOPTYEFFINDOO
The Texas state trooper who violently arrested Sandra Bland, an activist whose death caused nationwide protest last summer when she was found dead in her jail cell, was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday for perjury. Following the indictment, it was announced that he has been fired from the state police.
Trooper Brian Encinia was charged with the misdemeanor for allegedly lying about how he removed Bland from her vehicle during the traffic stop. The same grand jury opted not to indict any sheriff's officials or jailers in Bland's death last month.
Bland was pulled over for an improper lane change on July 10, and the interaction quickly escalated to the officer brandishing his taser and threatening “I will light you up,” when Bland refused to put her cigarette out and get out of the vehicle.
Bland was then held in a Waller County jail for three days, unable to come up with the $500 bail. On the third day, she was found hanging in her cell with a plastic garbage bag around her neck.
The woman’s family and supporters have questioned the official suicide ruling, noting that she was about to start a new career. She had also been critical of police on social media.
Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis has maintained that there is no evidence of foul play, but a lawyer for the family is requesting all the evidence from the grand jury proceedings to conduct their own investigation.
Encinia had been on paid administrative duty since Bland’s death, and is currently facing a wrongful death lawsuit by Bland’s family. The case is set to go to trial in January 2017.
The perjury charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. The grand jury will not be issuing any more indictments and have concluded their investigation into the case.
#WOOPTYEFFINDOO
HEMPSTEAD, Tex. — A panel reviewing the Texas jail where a 28-year-old black woman, Sandra Bland, was found dead three days after being arrested in July has called for major changes in the treatment and medical screening of inmates.
“Presently, deputies screen arrestees for mental and medical problems, but this is not an accurate or efficient process,” said a report by an independent committee charged with investigating practices and policies at the facility, the Waller County jail. “Deputies do not possess the training or expertise to evaluate the medical and mental health needs of inmates.”
Lingering questions after Ms. Bland’s death, which was ruled a suicide, focused on medical information on a booking form as she was being processed into the jail after a confrontational traffic stop. Ms. Bland responded “yes” on the form when asked whether she had ever attempted suicide, and told jailers that she was taking medication for epilepsy.
Committee members called for new policies requiring medical specialists to conduct medical and mental screening, and said deputies might not be qualified to deal with such issues.
“Often, deputies taking mental health history do not know what to do with this information once it made part of the file,” the report said.
The panel also found that suicide prevention measures at the jail were applied “in a less than optimal manner.”
The review committee, made up of four lawyers and a former judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, was formed after Ms. Bland was found hanging from a garbage bag in her jail cell.
Ms. Bland, who had recently moved to Texas to accept a job at Prairie View A&M University, was arrested on July 10 after being pulled over for failing to signal a lane change. The encounter turned tense, and the arresting trooper, Brian T. Encinia, eventually ordered her out of her car after she refused to put out a cigarette.
Trooper Encinia was fired by the Texas Department of Public Safety after being indicted on a perjury charge in January. He pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge. The grand jury declined to indict any of Ms. Bland’s jailers.
Craig Washington, the committee chairman and a former congressman, told reporters that the panel had focused specifically on conditions in the jail and not on Ms. Bland’s death or incarceration. Her name appeared only twice in the 11-page report, both times in reflective, tribute-like references.
“The committee was driven by Sandra Bland’s words: ‘I am going to Texas to make it better,’ ” members wrote in a two-sentence passage on cover page. Committee members also stated that, while studying “all areas” of the jail, “we are reminded of Sandra Bland’s untimely death as perhaps the impetus for this review.”
The panel issued nine recommendations, including building a new jail, buying body cameras, creating a digital booking process and separating jail administration from policing to enable deputies to concentrate on law enforcement.
Committee members, who participated in ride-alongs and were given access to the jail, said they had witnessed Sheriff Department employees insulting and dehumanizing people they encountered. The report called for “zero tolerance against the use of demeaning or derogatory language.”
In a related recommendation, the committee called for mandatory psychological evaluations and anger management courses to help deputies cope with stress.
The sheriff, R. Glenn Smith, who participated in the committee’s news conference, said he agreed with “about 99 percent” of the findings but suggested that he wanted to take a closer look at the recommendations on jail administration.
Mr. Washington, a lawyer in Houston, said the recommendations should also be broadly applied to other Texas sheriff’s offices. “I think this could be a model to others in law enforcement,” he said.
A version of this article appears in print on April 13, 2016, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Changes Proposed for Jail in Texas Where Bland Died.
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School Security aka Police Brutality of Cass Tech Student at Cass Tech High School in Detroit, MI
Student Pepper Sprayed Over Expired Elevator Pass
Filed under: School to Prison Pipeline Agenda
http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/det...ion-with-police-officer-at-detroits-cass-tech
Student Pepper Sprayed Over Expired Elevator Pass
Filed under: School to Prison Pipeline Agenda
http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/det...ion-with-police-officer-at-detroits-cass-tech
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