By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A six-month Justice Department investigation of the San Francisco Police Department revealed numerous problems, including an institutional bias against people of color.

The report said, “The deficiencies identified range from outdated use of force policies to inadequate data collection and lack of accountability measures. The assessment team identified disparities in traffic stops, post-stop searches, and use of deadly force against African-Americans. In addition, there are numerous indicators of implicit and institutionalized bias against minority groups,” according to CNN. 

The Justice Department recommended more than 27 change in the police department following an investigation sparked by several officer-involved fatal shootings.

Most of the cases of deadly use of force involved people of color.

“The truth hurts,” said Ronald Davis, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. ”To be selectively ignorant and pretend nothing is going on around you is ultimately going to be fatal to your organization.”

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee pledged to pledged to respond to the findings.

“The SFPD will accept and implement every single recommendation. We must restore trust, ” Lee said. “We have worked hard to put reforms in place. We did not wait for the DOJ report to become final.”

Other Stories of Interest

• FBI Investigating Hacking of Clinic Database Near Atlanta
• Grassley Renews Pressure on FBI in Death of Fairfax Teenager
• Trump Condemns Congress, FBI, Justice Department Over Clinton Case
• Thousands of Documents Show FBI Kept Eye on Miami Exiles
• Homeland Security to Temporarily Halt Deportation Flights to Haiti

Screenshot of video of former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI released video that shows former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon soliciting and accepting bribes from agents masquerading as real estate developers.

The videos were key evidence in his arrest, conviction and 44-month prison sentence for accepting more than $50,000 from an undercover agent and a Charlotte businessman, the Charlotte Observer reports. 

“I felt sick when it happened,” said former Mayor Richard Vinroot. “I felt sick again when I saw something I have never seen, and never imagined would ever happen in this good city,” he said. “It’s funny, you read about it – and the documents read so graphically. But now you see it, and it’s almost like a movie – somebody you know, doing something so terrible, so despicable while holding the highest office in the city.”

The FBI released eight videotapes and three audio recordings, which is uncharacteristic.

“The feds don’t release evidence,” said Charlotte defense attorney Claire Rauscher. “Once it was out in the public domain, I don’t think they had much of a choice.”

Wendell Hissrich, via city of Pittsburgh.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A 25-year veteran of the FBI has been named Pittsburgh’s new public safety director.

Wendell Hissrich, 55, a former city paramedic, will begin the job on Jan. 11, the Associated Press reports.

He’ll replace another FBI veteran, Stephen Bucar, who departed in September to become a deputy commissioner with the Pennsylvania State Police.

Hissrich most recently supervised 56 field offices as chief of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Response Unit at FBI headquarters.

He will be paid $112,500, which is subject to city council approval.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired back Wednesday at Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s request for the Justice Department to launch a civil rights investigation into the police department.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the mayor called the request “misguided,” even as protesters demanded justice for several unarmed people killed or shot by Chicago police officers.

Emanuel noted there are numerous investigations by city and federal authorities into the death of Laquan McDonald, who was fatally shot by police in October 2014, resulting in murder charges against Police Officer Jason Van Dyke.

“Like everybody else, I await their conclusions. They are looking into this situation and all the aspects around it. An additional layer prior to the completion of this, in my view, would be misguided,” Emanuel said in a live, online interview conducted by Politico before an audience at the Willis Tower.

“They are doing a thorough job. Hitting the re-start button on a whole new investigation does not get you to the conclusion in an expedited fashion.”

Mayor John Lee

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI determined it does not have enough evidence to pursue child pornography charges against Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

The case was turned over to the FBI after the city’s police department closed the case in October 2014 after possible child pornography was found on the mayor’s iPad.

According to police, Lee said the pornography was on his iPad after opening an e-mail, which police were never able to find.

Police also weren’t able to determine the ages of the people on the pornography.

Police had the iPad wiped free of the pornography but kept a copy and handed it to the FBI.

Palm Springs, Calif./Wikipedia

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A corruption investigation prompted the FBI and local authorities to raid Palm Springs City Hall, Calif., and visited the mayor’s home on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. 

The agents shut down city hall, and a Palm Springs attorney said employees cooperating with agents.

The FBI also went to the home of Mayor Steve Pougnet but there was no answer at the door.

“I am happy to cooperate with the inquiry going on at City Hall, just as I have always been fully cooperative and open in all of my many years as an elected official in Palm Springs,” the mayor said in a statement. “I have complete confidence that our City Council, city manager, city attorney and city staff will do everything they can to cooperate by ensuring that this process will be as swift and as thorough as possible.”

The FBI declined to comment on the investigation.

Mayor Michael Coleman

The FBI has launched an investigation into the Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman in the midst of a bribery scandal, WBNS-10 reports. 

The investigation involves a 2010 real estate deal.

The questions by the FBI centered around the sale of the mayor’s home, where she lived with his wife and their three children until they filed for dissolution in 2009.

The home sold to a woman abroad for $520,000 in 2010.

Coleman issued the following statement:

The sale of our home to Mrs. Li was an arms-length and fair transaction with everything aboveboard. Our original asking price for the home was $750,000. This asking price was recommended to us by our independent real estate broker who was very familiar with comparable home sales in the neighborhood. Also, before we sold our home, we put $570,000 of improvements into it to repair and replace fire damage. But we sold the home to Mrs. Li for substantially less, for $520,000. We also know that several other homes in the neighborhood sold for more than ours on a per square foot basis, according to an independent professional appraisal report.
In view of these documented facts, there is no basis for anyone to suggest that we sold our home for more than it was worth or that there was anything inappropriate about the transaction.

By Steve Neavling

In an unusual move for a city, Baltimore’s mayor is asking for a full-scale civil rights investigation into alleged abuse within the police department following a riot over the police-involved death of Freddie Gray and other black suspects.

“We all know that Baltimore continues to have a fractured relationship between the police and the community,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said, reports the Baltimore Sun. “I’m willing to do what it takes to reform my department.”

Spokeswoman Dena Iverson said Attorney General Loretta Lynch “is actively considering that option in light of what she heard from law enforcement, city officials and community, faith and youth leaders in Baltimore.”

The Justice Department has conducted investigations of police departments in 20 cities, including Cleveland and New Orleans.

The investigations typically take 18 to 24 months.