Attorney General Kamala Harris joins So Cal law enforcement partnership
Community Based Information System
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The state’s attorney general was in Los Angeles to officially involve her office in a Southern California law enforcement partnership aimed at creating a statewide database of information to help reduce crime.
Attorney General Kamala Harris also held a closed-door meeting with about 200 area law enforcement heads to discuss new policing technologies and best practices.
She signed a memorandum of agreement for the state Department of Justice to join 24 law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff and Los Angeles Police Departments, in using the so-called Community Based Information System, or CBIS.
The database allows beat cops, sheriff’s deputies and now Department of Justice officials to access a wide cross-section of demographic and economic information about a community, such as employment data or the number and location of homeless shelters, liquor stores, health centers, schools or libraries.
Harris said the database, which was launched by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca last September, helps agencies know “in an accurate, effective and swift way” what a community’s policing needs are.
“It is about addressing the fact that officers on the street do a lot that is interactive and helpful to that community above and beyond arresting a suspect,” she said. “It is often about helping a person in need.”
Baca described CBIS as “a library of resources” that beat cops have not had access to before.
“The issue that we all struggle with in reducing crime is public trust,” he said. “So when the officer is able to do something positive instead of just walk away, then what you have is a solution.”
The database was funded by $500,000 in California Emergency Management Agency grants. It will cost about $38,000 per year to maintain.
Los Angeles County hired a technology consulting firm, Archimedes Global, to evaluate if and how CBIS is helping departments improve policing. A spokeswoman said the firm would begin assessing how LAPD is using the database beginning this fall.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca is scheduled to be interviewed today by federal prosecutors examining allegations of abusive conduct by sheriff’s deputies at L.A. County jails and other problems in his department, although the sheriff says he is not an investigation target, a newspaper reported.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas will host a candlelight vigil April 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in commemoration of the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and in remembrance of those whose lives have been harmed by violence.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — On-the-go Angelenos can now use smart-phones to report potholes, pay their utility bills and look up everything from nearby dog parks to police stations. thanks to a new mobile app released today by the city.
The “MyLA311” app can be downloaded from the Apple App and Google Play stores.
On Saturday, the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Bureau, along with numerous teams, volunteers and city of Lancaster staff will conduct a survey in a specific Lancaster neighborhood with the purpose of identifying local crime and nuisance problems.
Teams will begin the door-to-door survey around 9 a.m. and continue until they have reached out to the nearly 600 homes in the area. The area to be surveyed is 10th Street West to Beech Avenue, and Avenue I to Avenue H-8. The area was identified after analysis of call and crime volume was conducted.
CULVER CITY, Calif.—Political leaders from throughout California are expected to attend funeral services today for Mervyn Dymally, a former congressman, state senator and assemblyman who was the state's only Black lieutenant governor.
Dymally died Oct. 7 in Los Angeles at age 86.
