Surveillance

The suspects were on the move. And the Feds could not keep up. The action stretched from Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles to Columbus Avenue here in Manhattan. The crimes involved foreign intrigue, laundered money, illegal drug proceeds, even a kidnapping. Those involved included a rabbi, several lawyers, a diplomat in Los Angeles, even a New York police officer with a million in cash stashed inside his locker at a Bronx police station.

They are almost everywhere, watching your every move. Pass through the bustle of Los Angeles International Airport and expect to have your picture photographed by one of 184 cameras posted throughout the vast network that makes up the country's second-busiest airport. Go to the long-term parking lots. The cameras are there. Put your luggage through an X-ray scanner. Again, they are there. Just about everywhere but the bathrooms, they are there.

The Los Angeles Police Department, which 12 years ago reluctantly agreed to restrictions on intelligence gathering amid an explosive scandal over police spying, is now preparing to relax those limits and significantly increase its authority to conduct undercover probes--a move civil libertarians are greeting with fear and skepticism.

The Los Angeles Police Commission voted Tuesday to roll back 12-year-old limits on LAPD intelligence gathering, a move opposed by longtime critics of the LAPD but accompanied by assurances that the department's civilian bosses will carefully monitor police performance under new, looser guidelines.

With smiles on their faces and business cards in their hands, the residents of the Park Santiago neighborhood have mobilized citizen patrols to end a longtime annoyance: men who cruise for sex in the nearby park. The patrols, which began in April, involve men and a handful of women who walk through nearby Santiago Park wearing custom white T-shirts with the words "Park Santiago Neighborhood Patrol" printed on the back.

A Democratic activist said he and some San Fernando Valley high school students were rattled last Saturday when Simi Valley police cruisers seemed to "tail" them while they knocked on doors and handed out political literature. But Simi Valley police responded that if the young political canvassers saw officers, it was only because police are always on the streets in a city that FBI statistics show to be among the nation's safest.

A panel representing the wireless communications industry voted Thursday to reject a government-backed plan to allow law enforcement agencies to monitor cellular phone users, it was reported today. The vote underlines the bitter dispute between the cellular industry and the Justice Department, which contends that the government has the right to use powerful new surveillance technology, the New York Times said..

A parolee forced to wear an electronic tracking anklet robbed and killed a woman despite the device, Oakland police said. The suspect, Grayland Winbush, 19, of Berkeley, was arrested on suspicion of the murder while in jail facing a charge of robbing a gas station, also committed while he was supposedly wearing the ankle bracelet. "It's a travesty this kid was out," said Police Sgt. Dave Kozicki. "He's supposed to be on the monitoring thing and he's out killing someone."

Dr. Jack Kevorkian wore one. So did Orange County socialite Danny Hernandez. Others who have sported the device include Saudi financier Adnan Khashoggi and a former publicist for Marla Maples Trump, plus thousands of lesser-known criminal defendants across the country: petty thieves, drunk drivers, wife-beaters, juvenile delinquents. Soon the same type of electronic surveillance bracelet is to be clamped firmly on the ankle of UC Irvine fertility doctor Sergio C.

Orange County socialite Danny Hernandez wore one. So did Saudi financier Adnan Khashoggi. Others who have sported the device include a former publicist for Marla Maples Trump, plus thousands of lesser-known criminal defendants across the country: petty thieves, drunk drivers, wife beaters, juvenile delinquents.