WORLD
August 31, 2010 | By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times
About 3,200 Mexican federal police officers, nearly a tenth of the force, have been fired this year under new rules designed to weed out crooked cops and modernize law enforcement, officials said Monday. The housecleaning is part of President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on drug cartels, which includes overhauling the 34,500-strong federal police force. An additional 465 federal officers have been charged with breaking the law, and 1,020 others face disciplinary action after failing screening tests, officials said.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 14, 2010 | By Scott Glover and Andrew Blankstein
Neil Thomas Gunn Sr. wheeled his pickup truck to the curb in a quiet hillside neighborhood in Burbank, about a mile from the police department where he'd worked for 22 years. He got out toting a 12-gauge shotgun, walked to a grassy area and turned the weapon on himself. Knowing that officers from his department would be dispatched to the scene, Gunn had left two notes in the truck. One asked that the vehicle not be impounded, but instead released to his family. The other said "this is absolutely work related."
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 25, 2010 | By Jack Leonard
It was meant to be a smoking gun: A grainy security video that proved police corruption. Officers said they had stopped Rafat Abdallah because his white Mercedes was missing a license plate. During a search of the car, they discovered a loaded handgun -- a serious crime for a convicted felon like Abdallah. But the footage, taken from a surveillance camera, clearly showed a license plate on Rafat Abdallah's white Mercedes as he left his business just moments before officers pulled him over.
WORLD
December 20, 2009 | By Richard Marosi
Since he took over one of the most troubled police departments in Mexico, Julian Leyzaola has slapped the face of a corpse, led shoot-'em-ups on the street and ordered suspected crooked cops to stick close to his office in downtown Tijuana -- he wanted them as human shields. "I told them, if they try to attack me in my office, you'll be right outside," Leyzaola said. "The first ones they kill will be you." He's not being paranoid. Since he launched a crackdown on organized crime and police corruption two years ago, Leyzaola has survived at least four assassination plots, including the latest threat to blow up his headquarters.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 3, 2009 | By Baxter Holmes
A former community college police chief in Riverside who allegedly stole ice cream from a push cart vendor he arrested, surrendered Wednesday to multiple felony charges relating to a towing company kickback scheme. Kevin Harold Segawa, 39, former police chief at Mt. San Jacinto College, surrendered to authorities after the Riverside County district attorney's office filed 10 criminal charges against the former lawman Wednesday. The charges culminated a 13-month investigation and included eight felony counts for crimes such as bribery, perjury and misappropriation of public funds.
NATIONAL
November 22, 2009 | By Sebastian Rotella
Around here, the grim joke goes, most people work for the government or the mafias. Or both. Richard Padilla Cramer apparently had bested the temptations that come with the territory. During three decades in border law enforcement, he made the most of his pitch-perfect Spanish and talent for undercover work. He locked up corrupt officials, racked up drug busts and rose through the ranks. He retired after a coveted stint as a U.S. attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Mexico, the land he had left as a child.