Homeland Security agents plan to test out use of body cameras
WASHINGTON — Agents with an investigative unit of the Department of Homeland Security will wear body cameras for the first time as part of a six-month pilot program that will focus on the costs and benefits of using the technology in federal law enforcement, officials said Tuesday.
The cameras will be used during the test by 55 members of the Swat-like special response teams at Homeland Security Investigations in Houston, Newark, New Jersey, and New York, a senior official told reporters.
Homeland Security Investigations, which focuses on transnational federal crimes such as drug and human trafficking and fraud, is a component of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE.
The senior ICE official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the agency expects later to expand the pilot to include officers who conduct immigration enforcement arrests.
The program, even though only a test, represents an expansion of the use of a technology already widely used in state and local law enforcement.
In September, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix and Detroit became the first federal officers to wear body cams, and other agencies were expected to follow suit.
Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations are expected to use the body cams when carrying out such actions as making pre-planned arrests, questioning suspects and executing search warrants.
The footage could be available to defense lawyers in criminal cases as part of the discovery process as well as to a more limited degree and with restrictions to others under the Freedom of Information Act, the senior official said.
DHS is negotiating aspects of the program with the union that represents ICE enforcement officers, and officials did not say when that part of the pilot would start.
Holiday launch: Spacex launched Christmas gifts, goodies and supplies to the International Space Station on Tuesday and got a present in return: the company’s 100th successful rocket landing.
The pre-dawn liftoff from NASA’S Kennedy Space Center was barely visible in the fog and clouds, as the Falcon rocket hoisted a Dragon capsule loaded with more than 6,500 pounds of gear for the station’s seven astronauts.
Several minutes later, the first-stage booster landed upright on an ocean platform, six years to the day that Elon Musk’s company accomplished its first booster touchdown in 2015.
This particular booster was making its first flight. A few days ago, a Spacex booster made its 11th flight.
Among the items due to arrive at the space station Wednesday: Christmas presents from the astronauts’ families, as well as smoked fish and turkey, green beans and fruitcake for a holiday feast.
The delivery also includes a laundry detergent experiment. Station astronauts currently trash their dirty clothes; Procter & Gamble Co. is developing a fully degradable detergent for eventual use at the station.
Spacex is ending the year with 31 launches, the most ever by the company.
Virus spike in NYC: Mayor Bill de Blasio said he’s committed to keeping the city open as it grapples with a huge spike in coronavirus cases.
The Democrat said Tuesday that New York can’t see schools and businesses close again like they did when COVID-19 first hit the city in 2020.
De Blasio has faced questions over the past week about whether he would reinstate closures as the omicron variant surges in the city.
“Adamantly I feel this: No more shutdowns. We’ve been through them,” de Blasio said at a virtual news conference. “They were devastating. We can’t go through it again.”
The governor of a central Philippine province devastated last week by Typhoon Rai pleaded on radio Tuesday for the government to quickly send food and other aid, warning that without
Plea for typhoon aid:
outside help, army troops and police would have to be deployed to prevent looting because of growing hunger.
Gov. Arthur Yap of Bohol province said he could no longer provide rice and other food aid after his contingency fund ran out and that many of the 1.2 million people in his island province, which remained without power and cellphone service five days after the typhoon struck, have become increasingly desperate.
The most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippine archipelago this year left at least 375 dead and more than 50 missing, officials said.
Floyd pardon possible:
Doling out pardons is a holiday tradition for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who around every Christmas grants them to a handful of ordinary citizens, typically for minor offenses committed years or decades ago.
But one name stands out
on his desk: George Floyd.
Abbott has not said whether he will posthumously pardon Floyd this year for a 2004 drug arrest in Houston by a former officer whose police work is no longer trusted by prosecutors. Texas’ parole board — stacked with Abbott appointees — unanimously recommended a pardon for Floyd in October.
Since then, the two-term Republican governor, who is up for reelection in 2022, has given no indication of whether he will grant what would be only the second posthumous pardon in Texas history.
Floyd, who was Black, spent much of his life in Houston before moving to Minnesota, where his death under the knee of a white police officer last year led to a U.S. reckoning on race and policing.
A spokeswoman for Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.
A
California man has been sentenced to three years in prison for threatening harm in text messages sent during the attack on the U.S. Capitol to a New York-based family member of a journalist, prosecutors said.
Robert Lemke, 36, was sentenced Monday in Manhattan federal court, according to Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Lemke, a resident of Bay Point in the San Francisco Bay Area, pleaded guilty in October to one count of making threatening interstate communications.
The messages sent to the journalist’s relative stated in part that the journalist’s “words are putting you and your family at risk. We are nearby, armed and ready.”
Prosecutors alleged that the messages were among threatening text and audio messages sent to approximately 50 people from November 2020 through early January 2021.