Law Enforcement

Federal officials next week will expand in Massachusetts a controversial program targeting illegal immigrants, particularly criminals, despite longstanding opposition from Governor Deval Patrick and advocates, according to local law enforcement officials who were notified Tuesday of the launch. Federal officials had announced plans to launch the program- called Secure Communities - by the end of 2013, and the announcement that it would come on May 15 caught some officials by surprise.

A guard at a southwest Mississippi prison died Sunday and several other employees were injured during a disturbance involving hundreds of inmates that continued into the evening, authorities and the prison's operator said. Emily Ham, a spokeswoman for the Adams County Sheriff's Office, confirmed Sunday evening that the guard died while being transported to a hospital. She said Corrections Corp. of America, the prison's private operator, was working Sunday night with law-enforcement authorities to bring the disturbance under control.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is warning law enforcement officials not to use a federal program aimed at identifying illegal immigrants arrested for crimes as a "license to profile. " Patrick told reporters Thursday that he doesn't want the Secure Communities program used to "gin up unnecessary fear" in minority communities whose continued cooperation with police is important for public safety. Patrick's comments came in response to the decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to launch the program next week.

When little Caleigh Harrison went missing from a Rockport beach last month, local police, state troopers, and the Coast Guard — with divers, helicopters, and teams of dogs — joined the search. Several days later, the family called in another resource: Mission for the Missing. Mission for the Missing is a nonprofit, volunteer group of private investigators, crime analysts, and forensic specialists who search for missing people, at no cost to their frantic families. Alan Tate, who has his own investigative firm, Metro Investigation in ­Quincy, started the organization in...

A guard at a southwest Mississippi prison died Sunday and several other employees were injured during a disturbance involving hundreds of inmates that continued into the evening, authorities and the prison's operator said. Emily Ham, a spokeswoman for the Adams County Sheriff's Office, confirmed Sunday evening that the guard died while being transported to a hospital. She said Corrections Corp. of America, the prison's private operator, was working Sunday night with law-enforcement authorities to bring the disturbance under control.

Anthony DiNunzio, the alleged don of the New England Mafia, sat in a federal courthouse in Rhode Island last week, draped in tan prison garb, nodding as a federal judge said he faces a lengthy prison term if convicted of racketeering and extortion. Luigi Manocchio, DiNunzio's 84-year-old predecessor, will go before a judge in Rhode Island on Friday to be sentenced for extorting protection payments from strip clubs. And Mark Rossetti, one of the most feared captains in the New England mob, is being held in Massachusetts on state charges of extortion and bookmaking.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — An Ohio man who authorities say was carrying a gun and driving a car loaded with law enforcement equipment when he said he wanted to see the president is a “public service-minded’’ ham radio and police buff, acquaintances said yesterday. Joseph Sean McVey, who was spotted by police in an Asheville Regional Airport parking lot Sunday just after Air Force One departed, had a note in his car with formulas used for firing a rifle with a scope, authorities said.

A failed levy vote in an Oregon county is taking a toll: government workers facing dismissal, a pending prisoner release, and crimes such as misdemeanor domestic assault and shoplifting likely to go unprosecuted. A day after Josephine County voters resoundingly turned thumbs down on a levy to plug a $12 million budget gap, the sheriff and district attorney began handing out pink slips Wednesday, cutting staff to levels probably not seen since the region was settled during the 1850s Gold Rush.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- President Bush, facing efforts by some in his own party to scale back the post-Sept. 11 USA Patriot Act, said yesterday it has made America safer and should be made permanent. "The Patriot Act closed dangerous gaps in America's law enforcement and intelligence capabilities, gaps the terrorists exploited when they attacked us on September the 11th," Bush said. Lawmakers responded to the 2001 attacks by overwhelmingly approving the law 45 days later. It allowed expanded surveillance of terror suspects, increased use of material...

The nation’s top fishery managers met yesterday with industry leaders from California to Maine to discuss ways to improve the law enforcement system amid findings of mismanagement, misspending, and questionable fines. The summit at a Washington hotel, broadcast on the Internet, followed months of revelations about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s law enforcement division that have fractured relations between the agency and fishermen and have prompted lawmakers to call for the resignation of NOAA head Jane Lubchenco.

Twenty years ago, on a warm evening in May 1992, a group of hoodlums violently assaulted rival gang members attending a funeral at the Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan. Beyond the horror, shock, and disbelief that the incident caused, it was also a wakeup call for the city, the black community, and eventually the nation. But the story has not been properly understood. It is a story of collaboration, transformation, and racial reconciliation. And it is, contrary to some accounts about the "Boston Miracle," a narrative that has its spiritual and intellectual origins in the...

The mother of a toddler missing for five months says she's begging, pleading and praying for someone to come forward with information that will help solve the mystery of what happened to her child, who disappeared from her bed just a week before Christmas. Trista Reynolds said she awakens every day hoping for answers to the disappearance of her daughter, Ayla, but there has been precious little information from law enforcement in recent weeks. "It's so hard to stay positive.

A failed levy vote in an Oregon county is taking a toll: government workers facing dismissal, a pending prisoner release, and crimes such as misdemeanor domestic assault and shoplifting likely to go unprosecuted. A day after Josephine County voters resoundingly turned thumbs down on a levy to plug a $12 million budget gap, the sheriff and district attorney began handing out pink slips Wednesday, cutting staff to levels probably not seen since the region was settled during the 1850s Gold Rush.

Federal immigration officials will activate the Secure Communities program statewide in Vermont next Tuesday, leaving Maine as the only state in the nation that has not yet launched the fingerprinting program, according to a federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the program. Maine is expected to follow soon afterward, the official said, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the program. The news came after officials announced that the program was being activated today in Massachusetts.

Mitt Romney's Mormon faith has shaped his life, but he barely mentioned it as he spoke to graduates at an evangelical university Saturday. And he hardly touched on hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage, instead offering a broad-based defense of values like family and hard work. "Culture — what you believe, what you value, how you live — matters," Romney told graduates gathered in the football stadium on Liberty University's campus in the Virginia mountains.

President Barack Obama honored the nation's top police officers on Saturday, paying tribute to their sacrifices and "quiet courage" in the line of duty. Obama, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, praised the winners of a national police association award at a White House ceremony that honored 34 officers who showed valor in an assortment of tense standoffs, shootings and rescues. "They are representative of the sacrifices and that quiet courage that exists among law enforcement officers all across the country and their families," Obama said...

TUCSON -- FBI agents posing as cocaine traffickers in Arizona caught 16 current and former US soldiers and law enforcement personnel who took about $220,000 in bribes to help move the drugs through checkpoints, Justice Department officials said yesterday. Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, current and former members of the Arizona Army National Guard and the state corrections department, and a Nogales police officer, officials said.

Law Enforcement ruled at Aqueduct on Monday, ending an 11-race losing streak with a 1 ¼-length victory in the $75,000 Hollie Hughes Stakes. The 7-year-old rallied past Head Heart Hoof in the seven-horse field for New York breds. Law Enforcement won for the sixth time in 26 starts and for the first time since the 2009 Saratoga meet. Ridden by Alan Garcia was trained by Mark Hennig, Law Enforcement trailed early but swung to the far outside turning for home. The time for the six furlongs was 1:10.95.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is warning law enforcement officials not to use a federal program aimed at identifying illegal immigrants arrested for crimes as a "license to profile. " Patrick told reporters Thursday that he doesn't want the Secure Communities program used to "gin up unnecessary fear" in minority communities whose continued cooperation with police is important for public safety. Patrick's comments came in response to the decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to launch the program next week.

As defiant as ever, get-tough Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces a federal court showdown over charges that deputies on his trademark immigration patrols racially profiled Latinos in violation of civil rights law. After months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over the allegations, the U.S. Justice Department took the rare step Thursday of suing. "We have invariably been able to work collaboratively with law enforcement agencies to build better departments and safer communities," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez said.