Police May Not Be Trained to Handle Mental Health Situations

According to a Governing.com article, 10% of 911 calls involve mental health situations that most police aren’t prepared to handle.  Many of these situations occur because of undiagnosed conditions that are unknown to the police.

While around 3% of adults suffer from severe mental illness, they make up from 25% to 50% of all fatal law enforcement encounters.

Mental health advocates say that comprehensive solutions are needed, such as emergency personnel working with hospitals to follow up with patients to make sure they are taking their prescribed medication.

Connecticut law requires police training programs to include a course on handling incidents involving people affected with a serious mental illness (CGS § 7-294r).

http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-mental-health-crisis-training-police.html

PulsePoint: App Sends Alert When CPR Is Needed

PulsePoint, the subject of a recent Governing article, is an app that alerts users when someone nearby is suffering from sudden cardiac arrest.  The alert is sent through local fire departments and emergency medical services agencies.  The idea behind the app is that an everyday citizen with CPR-training is likely to reach the person faster than emergency services personnel and can administer CPR until they arrive.  The app also allows users to report the locations of auto external defibrillators (AEDs), devices that work faster and are easier to use to jump start a person's heart than traditional CPR. 

Approximately 325,000 people die each year in the U.S. from sudden cardiac arrest, and about 57 percent of American adults are trained in CPR.  The American Heart association estimates that administering CPR immediately can double or even triple a person's chance of survival after suffering cardiac arrest.  

Paramedics Are More Likely to be Assaulted than Firefighters

A recent Drexel study concluded that emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics are 14 times more likely to be violently injured on the job than firefighters.  Fifty-six out of 365 paramedics reported being assaulted compared to 35 out of 2,809 firefighters. As a result, paramedics are dealing with a high level of stress, which may lead them to be detached and wary of new patients.  
  
The researchers tracked reported injuries and assaults of medics and firefighters between 2005 and 2013.  The researchers also found that assault-related injures are often unreported. 

Sometimes a Good Bargain may Trump Privacy Concerns

“Many Americans are in an ‘it depends’ frame of mind when they think about disclosing personal information or keeping it private when considering different scenarios,” according to a recent Pew Research Center survey of 461 adults and nine online focus groups of 80 people.

The survey found that in a variety of circumstances, Americans are willing to share personal information or permit government surveillance in return for getting something of perceived value. But they are often cautious about disclosing their information and frequently unhappy about what happens to that information once companies have collected it.

The respondents’ ambivalence showed up in how the respondents felt about retail loyalty cards and “smart thermostats. The survey found that “nearly half (47%) of respondents said the basic bargain offered by retail loyalty cards – namely, that stores track their purchases in exchange for occasional discounts – is acceptable to them.” But their attitudes shifted when they were asked about installing thermostats in their homes that would help them save money while tracking their movements. Most—by a 55% to 27% margin—said they consider this an unacceptable tradeoff.

So what phrase best captures Americans’ views on the choice between privacy vs. disclosure of personal information? “It depends.” The choice is shaped by “both the conditions of the deal and the circumstances of people’s lives.” Other factors come into play as well, such as what happens to data after it is collected, how long it is retained, and whether it is disseminated to others.

For more on this survey, visit:

http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/01/14/privacy-and-information-sharing/

All Parents Worry About Their Children but for Different Reasons

It turns out that demographics play a role in the types of worries parents have about their children, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.

For instance, according to the report:

1. Low-income parents are more concerned than higher-income parents about teen pregnancy (50% to 43%) and their children getting into trouble with the law (a 2:1 margin). 
2. Black parents are more likely than white parents to worry about their children being shot (39% vs. 22%).
3. White parents are more likely than black parents to worry that their children might struggle with anxiety or depression (58% vs. 35%) or have problems with drugs or alcohol (40% vs. 23%).
4. Hispanic parents worry more than black or white parents about all eight measures included in the survey, from being bullied to having problems with drugs or alcohol.

According to the study, some worries are shared by all groups regardless of income. “At least half of all parents, regardless of income, worry that their children might be bullied or struggle with anxiety or depression at some point. For parents with annual family incomes of $75,000 or higher, these concerns trump all others tested in the survey.”

The study is based on a survey of 1,807 American parents with children younger than age 18 conducted on September 15 to October 13, 2015.

 

Are you a Gamer?

Ten percent of Americans who report ever playing video games consider themselves to be “gamers.”

Among the key findings of a recent Pew Research Center survey on Americans’ video game habits are the following:

1. Half of American adults play video games on a computer, TV, game console, or portable device like a cellphone, and 10% consider themselves to be “gamers.”
2. Nearly equal numbers of men and women play video games (50% and 48% respectively), although men are over twice as likely to call themselves “gamers” (15% of men v. 6% of women).
3. Four of every 10 adults believe that violence in video games is related to violent behavior, but slightly over half disagree with the statement “people who play violent video games are more likely to be violent themselves.”
4. A quarter of all adults (26%) think video games are a waste of time; Twenty-four percent think most games are not a waste of time. One-third think some games are a waste of time. And 16% don’t know what to think of the issue.
5. Almost half of adults are unsure if video games portray minorities and women poorly.

Click here for highlights of the report. 

Casinos Raise Slot Payout Percentages

According to a Boston Globe report, due to increased competition, New England casinos are substantially increasing the number of jackpots their slot machines are paying out.

Casino managers are able to change the mathematical formulas used to determine a player’s chance of winning. The Globe, based on data the casinos provided to state regulators between July 1 and October 31, reported that the Foxwoods’ average payout percentage was 91.98%, which was the highest in almost 20 years.  The Mohegan Sun’s payout was 91.79%, the highest since 2010.

Image Source: pixabay.com

Malloy Establishes Permanent Work Group to Strengthen State’s Emergency Weather Preparedness

On October 26, Governor Malloy signed  an executive order establishing the Safe Agencies Fostering Resilience (SAFR) Council to coordinate the creation of a statewide policy on resisting and rapidly recovering from the shock of tropical storms, hurricanes, ice storms, and other natural hazards.

The 12-member council is the successor of the State Agencies Fostering Resilience working group and includes state agency heads and experts.  The council’s charge,  among other things, is to “collaborate on the creation of a Statewide Resilience Roadmap based on the best climate impact research and data including extensive research studies that inform land use patterns” and help municipalities incorporate this and other information in their coastal resilience and land use plans.

Regulating the Use of Electronic Defense Weapons by Police

OLR Report 2015-R-0187 summarizes the current law governing police officers’ use of electronic defense weapons (EDWs).  

By law, the State Police and local police departments that authorize their officers to use EDWs must document their use and annually, starting January 15, 2016, report the information to the Office of Policy and Management for posting on its website. The law also requires the (1) Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) to develop and promulgate a standardized form and model policy providing guidelines on EDW use, and (2) police departments authorizing use of EDWs to adopt and maintain a written policy meeting or exceeding POST’s model. The specific information and statistics that each report should include are outlined in Public Act 14-149.

POST adopted its model policy on December 22, 2014.  Among other things, the model policy addresses how EDWs may be worn, how they may be deployed, and medical treatment for subjects on whom EDWs are used.

For additional information, read the full report. 

Younger Players Find Slot Machines Boring

Millennials are just not into playing slot machines and this poses a revenue problem for casinos and states, according to an article in Stateline Magazine. According to the article, casinos nationwide “are suffering from a generation gap, especially as young people seek more exotic electronic games like the ones they can play on smartphones from anywhere.” The author cites a study by the Rockefeller Institute, which reviewed 16 states and found that tax revenue increased by just 0.1 percent in FY 15 compared to the previous year when adjusted for inflation. Excluding Maryland, which reported a 17.1% growth largely resulting from the opening of a new casino in Baltimore, tax revenue declined 1.2% in the remaining 15 states. The declining revenue is prompting the casino industry and states to seek new ways to attract younger gamblers, “including mimicking the types of games millennials play on the Internet, such as online poker and fantasy sports.” Read more here. 

Law Enforcement Recommends Changes to Reduce Police Shootings

In the wake of recent police-community tensions, a report by a police research and policy group, which includes law enforcement officers from across the country, has called for major changes in law enforcement tactics. The report, issued by the Police Executive Research Forum, analyzed controversial police shootings over the last year and concluded that some could have been avoided. Consequently, it urges police departments to adopt training methods and tactics that encourage peaceful resolution of issues. According to the report, “it is time for an overhaul of police training, policy, supervision, and culture on use of force.”


Read the full report here:
http://www.policeforum.org/assets/reengineeringtraining1.pdf

Prison Populations Decline Nationwide

According to a new report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of prisoners held by state and federal authorities fell by 1% from the end of 2013 to the end of 2014.  The federal prison population fell by 2.5%. 

Among other findings in the report:

• state and federal prisons held 1,508,600 people sentenced to more than one year in prison at the end of 2014, down by 11,800 from the end of 2013;
• 54% of state male inmates were violent offenders, as of the end of 2013; and
• 50% of males and 59% of females in federal prisons were sentenced for drug offenses, as of September 30, 2014.

On September 1, 2015, Connecticut’s prison population stood at 16,168, down from 17,563 in 2013.

 

For more nationwide data, read the BJS report.

For more statistics on Connecticut’s criminal justice system, read the Office of Policy and Management’s Monthly Indicators Report.

Community Policing Awards

The U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch has just announced more than $107 million in grant funding through the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Cops Hiring Program (CHP) to nearly 200 law enforcement agencies nationwide. CHP provides funding directly to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire and rehire entry-level career law enforcement officers in an effort to create and preserve jobs and increase community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. Lynch said the awards “will promote the ongoing efforts of the Department of Justice as we work to build the safe, secure, and supportive communities that every American deserves.” Click here for more information on the awards.

States Beginning to Limit Police License Plate Readers

According to a recent Governing article, six states (Arkansas, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Utah, and Vermont) have enacted laws that restrict or prohibit police from using license plate reader technology. 

These automated license plate readers are mounted either on a police car or on a fixed position (e.g., bridge).  The technology allows police to check tens of thousands of plates in an hour, which a 2010 study by the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy showed increased arrests for car theft and deterred people from stealing vehicles.

Under good conditions, the readers are accurate over 90% of the time, but under less than ideal conditions (e.g., bad weather) the percentage drops to below 80%.  This can result in false matches.

But critics of the readers, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have raised privacy concerns, since the technology allows police to track any car.  According to the Governing article, the ACLU is concerned with the lack of rules about reader use, as well as data retention periods, with police departments keeping data anywhere from 48 hours to five years.

9-1-1 Calls from Multi-Line Telephone Systems

OLR Report 2015-R-0179 explores the issue of direct 9-1-1 dialing from multi-line telephone systems.  This issue gained national attention after a Texas woman, Kari Rene Hunt, was murdered in a hotel bathroom while her nine-year old daughter tried repeatedly to dial 9-1-1, not realizing that she had to dial "9" first to reach an outside line.  Texas went on to become the first state to require direct 9-1-1 dialing, passing "Kari's Law," which will take effect on September 1, 2015.  Similar legislation has been passed in Illinois and Maryland.  No legislation requiring direct 9-1-1 dialing has ever been proposed in Connecticut. 

Read the full report here.

Summary of Suitability Issue in Kuck v. Danaher

OLR Report 2015-R-0136 summarizes the issues discussed in a recent federal district court decision as to whether a state law requiring a person be found “suitable” to hold a gun permit violates the 2nd Amendment.

The case involved M. Peter Kuck, whose application to renew his gun permit was denied when he refused to submit a passport or birth certificate as part of the renewal application, and James Goldberg, whose gun permit was revoked as a result of his arrest for 2nd degree breach of the peace. Both men were deemed unsuitable to hold a permit, which is required to carry handguns in Connecticut. In their court challenge, the men alleged that the determination that they were not suitable to hold a gun permit violated their 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

The court said that although the term “suitable” [as used in the gun permit statute] is not statutorily defined, “Connecticut courts have made clear that the purpose of imposing a suitability requirement is to ensure that persons who potentially would pose a danger to the public if entrusted with a handgun do not receive a permit.” Applying the intermediate scrutiny standard of review used by most district courts in determining the constitutionality of firearm regulations, the court concluded that the challenged statute was not unconstitutional.

Click here to read more about the case and the court’s decision in the full report.

Summary of South Carolina's Police Body Camera Law

OLR Report 2015-R-0159 provides a summary of South Carolina’s new police body camera law.

The new law requires all law enforcement agencies in South Carolina to use body cameras.  It establishes a fund to help agencies buy, operate, and maintain necessary body camera equipment.  It requires agencies to create guidelines and operational procedures for body camera use and sets standards for who may request and obtain data generated by the cameras. Agencies are not required to implement a body camera program until they receive the necessary funding.

Firearm Background Checks Show a Slight Decrease In 2014

National firearm background checks dipped slightly in 2014 after year-over-year increases for over a decade, according to a recent Governing article that reviewed National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) data.  Mike Maciag, the magazine’s data editor, speculated that  the  “lower tallies last year likely resulted from an unusually high total in 2013, particularly in the months following the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.,” when lawmakers debated new firearm legislation.

But the trend may be reversing. A look at recent 2015 data suggests that “about half of the states are on pace to exceed 2014 totals,” with Indiana experiencing a “particularly steep increase in firearm checks over the past few months,” the article observed.

Historical data suggests that background checks often spike before a new law imposing additional requirements takes effect. They also tend to spike during a holiday season or after a tragic incident.  For example, “the FBI reported a record of 2.8 million checks in December 2012, the month the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place,” the article noted.

Although NICS background check data is used to predict sales, it does not reflect actual sales. For example, a person purchasing many firearms at the same time may need only one background check. Furthermore, states occasionally re-run checks for various reasons. 

Survey research also raises questions about the connection between background checks and firearm ownership. Although firearm background checks have steadily increased, the share of households that report owning guns has dropped from nearly half in the 1970s and early 80s to one-third today, according to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

For additional information, click here to read the full article.

New Report: Body-Worn Camera Funding For Police Officers

OLR Report 2015-R-0142 provides the status of funding for the body-worn camera (BWC) program announced by President Obama in 2014.


In December, 2014, President Obama proposed a $263 million investment to increase police use of BWCs and expand training for law enforcement officers. The program would allocate $75 million over three years to buy 50,000 BWCs.


As part of that initiative, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on May 1 announced a $20 million pilot program to help law enforcement agencies throughout the country implement or enhance BWC programs. This includes $19 million in competitive grants for buying BWCs, training, and other technical assistance, and $1 million to develop evaluation tools to study best practices associated with BWC use.


According to DOJ, the intent of the program is to help law enforcement agencies develop, implement, and evaluate BWC programs to enhance police interactions with the public and build community trust. The program will be administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) under DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs.


DOJ says it expects to provide up to 50 awards. It is currently soliciting grant applications; the application deadline is June 16, 2015.


To read the full report, click here.

Connecticut Court Rules on Categorically Banning People from Transporting Weapons

OLR Report 2015-R-0026 summarizes the Connecticut Supreme Court’s ruling in State v. Deciccio, which overturned the conviction of a man imprisoned for transporting weapons in a vehicle while moving his belongings to a new residence.


While Mr. Deciccio was moving his belongings from his Connecticut residence to his new residence in Massachusetts on July 22, 2010, he was involved in a motor vehicle accident.  The responding officer noticed several weapons in Deciccio’s vehicle and charged him with six counts of having a weapon in a motor vehicle in violation of CGS § 29-38(a), which, with some exceptions, makes it unlawful to carry certain weapons in a vehicle.


After a jury trial, the court found the defendant guilty of unlawfully transporting the police baton and dirk knife in his vehicle and not guilty with respect to the other weapons. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment, suspended after 15 months, and three years probation with special conditions.


Deciccio appealed his conviction on grounds that CGS § 29-38(a) is unconstitutionally vague and that it violated his constitutional right to bear arms by preventing him from transporting his weapons to his new home.


The state Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, rejected Deciccio’s claim that the statute is vague but held that its “categorical ban on transporting dirk knives and police batons from one home to another operates as a significant infringement on the defendant’s right to bear arms in his home.” As the OLR report noted, “the court said that its holding was narrow, and the legislature is free to regulate the carrying and transportation of dangerous weapons in the interest of public safety, so long as the regulation accords with the Second Amendment.”