Dawn Wood, a police officer with Essex Police's marine unit, was delighted to be awarded the British Empire Medal.

She has built relationships between the police and marine community along the Essex coast and is widely respected for her conservation work and her incredible achievements as an endurance athlete.

Two years ago, she completed a solo tour across the Atlantic to raise awareness of the problem of plastic pollution in the oceans.

She recorded the second fastest time by a woman to cross the Atlantic in February 2019 when she completed the 3,000 mile journey from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 53 days.

Battling raging seas and howling winds, PC Wood raised more than £20,000 and was later named Fundraiser of the Year by the Marine Conservation Society.

She also visited more than 50 schools and community groups to share her inspiring story and promote environmental protection and awareness of plastic pollution.

PC Wood said: “I had to read the letter three or four times – I couldn’t believe it.

“I thought the medal would only be for the individual, but to be recognized for the work I have done in the Maritime Police is just incredible.”

“Normally I’m not at a loss for words, but this time I was at a loss for words.”

In 2023, she hopes to accomplish another incredible charity feat as part of a four-person team rowing the Pacific from San Francisco to Hawaii.

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A Vallejo Police sergeant goes through paperwork in his patrol car on May 7, 2008 in Vallejo. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A repairman who was left covered in blood after being beaten and choked by Vallejo police will receive $750,000 from the city, it was announced Friday.

The city of San Francisco Bay Area agreed Thursday to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by Carl Edwards over the 2017 incident, which was recorded by a witness and a police officer's body camera.

The lawsuit named the city, three police officers and a former officer.

An email seeking comment from the city after business hours Friday was not immediately returned.

Edwards was repairing his fence on July 30, 2017, when he was grabbed and tackled by officers, repeatedly punched in the head, hit in the knee and twice placed in a now-banned neck position that caused him to briefly pass out, they say said in a statement from Edward's attorney, Michael Haddad.

Edwards suffered a broken nose and a shoulder injury.

“I couldn't believe it when I was suddenly suffocated,” Edwards, 53, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “When I heard more sirens going off, I thought, 'Thank God these guys are going to tell these guys to back off.' And they just jumped in.”

A neighbor had called the police because a man was using a slingshot to shoot stones at her two boys. But arriving police learned that Edwards was not the man and that his clothing and description did not match those of the suspect, his attorney's statement said.

Edwards was charged with resisting arrest and other crimes. But after 14 months, the charges were dismissed by the Solano County district attorney for lack of evidence, the Chronicle said.

Edwards told the newspaper that he planned to leave town soon.

“I'm moving. I have to get out of here,” he said. “I'm gone.”

Last month, the Vallejo City Council announced a public safety emergency declaration, allowing staff to bypass normal channels to enforce police reforms. A more comprehensive reform proposal was also adopted.

The city of 120,000 residents is facing a “crisis of legitimacy and trust” that requires emergency measures, city spokeswoman Christina Lee said before the meeting.

Police are facing increasing criticism and financial liability over shootings and officer misconduct. Two dozen federal civil rights cases and more than a dozen damages suits are pending, which could cost the city $50 million as well as higher insurance premiums, Lee said.

In September, Vallejo agreed to pay $5.7 million to the family of a man who was shot by a police officer after being stopped for a minor traffic violation. In June, 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa was shot and killed by an officer who thought he had a gun when he didn't.

Earlier this year, the police chief announced he was launching an independent investigation after two people in the department said officers bent their badges to mark line-of-duty killings.

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TULSA, Okla. (Gray News) – Police in Tulsa are looking for a handyman who they say violently raped a 70-year-old woman at her home, resulting in “extremely serious injuries.”

According to the Tulsa Police Department, officers responded to a call at the home Wednesday evening when the victim reported that her handyman beat her and sexually assaulted her inside her home.

The woman was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries to her head, face and body, the police said.

Police are now looking for 40-year-old Elga Harper. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. Police said once Harper is captured, he will be charged with two counts of first-degree rape, first degree robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and battery, and assault and battery by means likely to produce death.

Detectives said while Harper has a beard in most photographs, they believe he likely shaved his face to change his appearance.

Police are asking anyone who sees Harper to call 911.

Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to put the brakes on a controversial policy that would have let police use robots for deadly force, reversing course just days after their approval of the plan generated fierce pushback and warnings about the militarization and automation of policing.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to explicitly ban the use of robots in such a fashion for now. But they sent the issue back to a committee for further discussion and could vote in the future to let police use robots in a lethal manner in limited cases.

The board voted last week to allow the use of deadly robots in extreme circumstances. The police department said it had no plans to arm the robots with guns but wanted the ability to put explosives on them and use then to contact, incapacitate or disorient dangerous or armed suspects when lives are at risk.

The initial vote thrust the famously liberal city into the center of a debate about the future of technology and policing, with some saying arming robots was a step too close to something one would see in a dystopian science fiction movie. Though robot technology for policing has become more widely available, departments across the country have rarely used it to confront or kill suspects.

Three supervisors who rejected the policy from the beginning joined dozens of protesters Monday outside City Hall to urge the board to change course. They chanted and held signs with phrases like “We all saw that movie… No Killer Robots.”

Supervisor Dean Preston was among them, and on Tuesday he told his colleagues the public hadn’t been given enough time to voice their concerns about such a pressing issue.

“The people of San Francisco have spoken loud and clear: There is no place for killer police robots in our city,” he said in a statement after the vote. “We should be working on ways to decrease the use of force by local law enforcement, not giving them new tools to kill people.”

The vote was the result of a new state law that requires police departments to inventory equipment including certain guns, grenades, armored vehicles and battering rams and to seek explicit approval for their use. So far, only San Francisco and Oakland have discussed lethal robots as part of that law. Oakland police wanted to arm robots with shotguns but backed down in the face of public opposition, instead opting for pepper spray.

Some San Francisco officials wanted to proceed with allowing robots to use deadly force in certain cases, arguing nothing substantive had changed to warrant a reversal. But the vote to advance the broader police equipment policy — including the ban on lethal robots — passed unanimously.

It still allows police to use robots to check out potentially dangerous scenes so that officers can stay back.

“Having robots that have eyes and ears and can remove bombs, which happens from time to time, is something that we want the police department to do while we continue to have this very controversial discussion,” said Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who brought forward last week’s motion around the use of robots.

The new policy needs another vote to take effect.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Supervisors in San Francisco voted Tuesday to give city police the ability to use potentially lethal, remote-controlled robots in emergency situations — following an emotionally charged debate that reflected divisions on the politically liberal board over support for law enforcement .

The vote was 8-3, with the majority agreeing to grant police the option despite strong objections from civil liberties and other police oversight groups. Opponents said the authority would lead to the further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with poor and minority communities.

Supervisor Connie Chan, a member of the committee that forwarded the proposal to the full board, said she understood concerns about use of force but that “according to state law, we are required to approve the use of these equipments. So here we are, and it’s definitely not an easy discussion.”

The San Francisco Police Department said it does not have pre-armed robots and has no plans to arm robots with guns. But the department could deploy robots equipped with explosive charges “to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspect” when lives are at stake, SFPD spokesperson Allison Maxie said in a statement.

“Robots equipped in this manner would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives,” she said.

Supervisors amended the proposal Tuesday to specify that officers could use robots only after using alternative force or de-escalation tactics, or concluding they would not be able to subdue the suspect through those alternative means. Only a limited number of high-ranking officers could authorize use of robots as a deadly force option.

San Francisco police currently have a dozen functioning ground robots used to assess bombs or provide eyes in low visibility situations, the department says. They were acquired between 2010 and 2017, and not once have they been used to deliver an explosive device, police officials said.

But explicit authorization was required after a new California law went into effect this year requiring police and sheriffs departments to inventory military-grade equipment and seek approval for their use.

The state law was authored last year by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu while he was an assembly member. It is aimed at giving the public a forum and voice in the acquisition and use of military-grade weapons that have a negative effect on communities, according to the legislation.

A federal program has long dispensed grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms, bayonets, armored vehicles and other surplus military equipment to help local law enforcement.

In 2017, then-President Donald Trump signed an order reviving the Pentagon program after his predecessor, Barack Obama, curtailed it in 2015, triggered in part by outrage over the use of military gear during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of Michael Brown.

San Francisco police said late Tuesday that no robots were obtained from military surplus, but some were purchased with federal grant money.

Like many places around the US, San Francisco is trying to balance public safety with treasured civilian rights such as privacy and the ability to live free of excessive police oversight. In September, supervisors agreed to a trial run allowing police to access in real time private surveillance camera feeds in certain circumstances.

Debate on Tuesday ran more than two hours with members on both sides accusing the other of reckless fear mongering.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who voted in favor of the policy authorization, said he was troubled by rhetoric painting the police department as untrustworthy and dangerous.

“I think there’s larger questions raised when progressives and progressive policies start looking to the public like they are anti-police,” he said. “I think that is bad for progressives. I think it’s bad for this Board of Supervisors. I think it’s bad for Democrats nationally.”

Board President Shamann Walton, who voted against the proposal, pushed back, saying it made him not anti-police, but “pro people of color.”

“We continuously are being asked to do things in the name of increasing weaponry and opportunities for negative interaction between the police department and people of color,” he said. “This is just one of those things.”

The San Francisco Public Defender’s office sent a letter Monday to the board saying that granting police “the ability to kill community members remotely” goes against the city’s progressive values. The office wanted the board to reinstate language barring police from using robots against any person in an act of force.

On the other side of the San Francisco Bay, the Oakland Police Department dropped a similar proposal after public backlash.

The first time a robot was used to deliver explosives in the US was in 2016, when Dallas police sent in an armed robot that killed a holed-up sniper who had killed five officers in an ambush.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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A handyman who was left bloodied after he was beaten and choked by Vallejo police will receive $750,000 from the city, it was announced Friday.

The San Francisco Bay Area city agreed Thursday to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by Carl Edwards over the 2017 incident, which was recorded by a witness and by a police officer’s body camera.

The lawsuit named the city, three police officers and a former officer.

An email seeking comment from the city after hours Friday wasn’t immediately returned.

Edwards was fixing his fence on July 30, 2017, when he was grabbed and tackled by officers, punched repeatedly in the head, kneed and twice placed in a now-banned neck hold that caused him to briefly pass out, said a statement from his attorney, Michael Haddad.

Edwards suffered a broken nose and a shoulder injury.

“I couldn’t believe it when all of a sudden I was being choked,” Edwards, 53, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “When I heard more sirens coming, I thought, ‘Thank God, these guys are going to tell these guys to back off.’ And they just jumped in.”

A neighbor had called the police about a man shooting rocks with a slingshot at her two boys. But arriving police were told Edwards wasn’t the man and his clothing and description didn’t match those of the suspect, said his lawyer’s statement.

Edwards was charged with resisting arrest and other criminal counts. But after 14 months, the charges were dismissed by the Solano County district attorney for lack of evidence, the Chronicle said.

Edwards told the newspaper that he plans to leave the city soon.

“I’m moving. I gotta get out of here,” he said. “I’m gone.”

Last month, Vallejo’s City Council proclaimed a public safety emergency declaration allowing staff to bypass normal channels to push through police reforms. It also passed a broader reform proposal.

The city of 120,000 people faces “a crisis of legitimacy and trust” that demands emergency action, city spokeswoman Christina Lee said before the meeting.

Police face mounting criticism and fiscal liability over shootings and misconduct by officers. Two dozen federal civil rights cases and more than a dozen tort claims are pending that could cost the city $50 million as well as higher insurance premiums, Lee said.

In September, Vallejo agreed to pay $5.7 million to the family of a man who was shot and killed by an officer after he was pulled over for a minor traffic infraction. In June, 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa was shot and killed by the officer who thought he had a gun when he did not.

Earlier this year, the police chief announced he was launching an independent investigation after two people in the department said officers had their badges bent to mark on-duty killings.

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TULSA, Okla. (Gray News) – Police in Tulsa are looking for a handyman who they say violently raped a 70-year-old woman at her home, resulting in “extremely serious injuries.”

According to the Tulsa Police Department, officers responded to a call at the home Wednesday evening when the victim reported that her handyman beat her and sexually assaulted her inside her home.

The woman was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries to her head, face and body, the police said.

Police are now looking for 40-year-old Elga Harper. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. Police said once Harper is captured, he will be charged with two counts of first-degree rape, first degree robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and battery, and assault and battery by means likely to produce death.

Detectives said while Harper has a beard in most photographs, they believe he likely shaved his face to change his appearance.

Police are asking anyone who sees Harper to call 911.

Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The post Handyman on the run after violent sexual assault of 70-year-old lady, police say appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to put the brakes on a controversial policy that would let police use robots for deadly force.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to explicitly ban the use of robots in such fashion for now. But they sent the issue back to a committee for further discussion and could allow it in limited cases at another time.

It’s a reversal from last week’s vote allowing the use of robots in limited cases. The police said they had no plans to arm the robots with guns but wanted the ability to put explosives on them in extraordinary circumstances.

Last week’s approval generated pushback and criticism about the potential to deploy robots that can kill people.

Some supervisors said they felt the public did not have enough time to engage in the discussion about whether robots could be used to kill people before the board first voted last week.

The vote was the result of a new state law that requires police departments to inventory military-grade equipment and seek approval for its use.

The approved policy does give the police power to use robots for situational awareness, such as going first into a dangerous situation so police can stay back.

The post San Francisco police cannot use lethal robots for now appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Paul Pelosi, the husband of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is recovering from surgery after he was attacked by a hammer-wielding intruder at the couple’s home in San Francisco.

Mr Pelosi, 82, suffered a fractured skull and injuries to his right arm and hands. He is “receiving excellent medical care and is expected to make a full recovery,” spokesman Drew Hammill said.

The attack on the spouse of the third-most senior politician in the United States has sparked concerns about political violence ahead of the midterm elections on 8 November.

The suspect, David Depape, 42, is said to have tried to tie Mr Pelosi up and demanded to know “where’s Nancy?”, according to reports.

US President Joe Biden described the attack as “despicable” and denounced a corrosive political climate for contributing to violence. “Enough is enough is enough,” he said during a speech in Philadelphia. “Every person of good conscience needs to clearly and unambiguously stand up against the violence in our politics, regardless of what your politics are.”

In the hours following the attack, the US government put out a bulletin to law enforcement across the nation warning of a “heightened threat” of domestic violent extremism against candidates and election workers driven by individuals with “ideological grievances”.

The attack on Mr Pelosi is being treated as attempted murder. A motive has not yet been fully determined, but San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said the attack was “intentional” and not random.

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Mrs Pelosi – who was on the other side of the country in Washington DC at the time of the assault – flew back to see her husband in hospital.

A spokesman for the senior Democrat said Mr Pelosi had been attacked in the early hours of Friday morning “by an assailant who acted with force, and threatened his life while demanding to see the Speaker”.

San Francisco Police are leading the investigation and are working with the FBI and US Capitol Police.

Ms Pelosi, the highest-ranking Democrat in Congress, was in Washington at the time of the assault, according to US Capitol Police.

The suspected attacker has espoused extreme right-wing views on social media, including conspiracy theories about Covid-19, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing law-enforcement officials.

He also allegedly posted videos from Donald Trump ally and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, as well as theories on the 6 January attack on the Capitol.

DePape also posted links to YouTube videos with titles like “Democrat FARCE Commission to Investigate January 6th Capitol Riot COLLAPSES in Congress!!!” and “Global Elites Plan To Take Control Of YOUR Money! (Revealed)”.

Politicians from both sides of the political divide have condemned the attack.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow Democrat, said in a statement: “What happened to Paul Pelosi was a dastardly act.

“I spoke with Speaker Pelosi earlier this morning and conveyed my deepest concern and heartfelt wishes to her husband and their family, and I wish him a speedy recovery.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said he was “horrified and disgusted” by the attack on Mr Pelosi.

He tweeted: “Grateful to hear that Paul is on track to make a full recovery and that law enforcement including our stellar Capitol Police are on the case.”

The White House said President Joe Biden was “praying for Paul Pelosi and for Speaker Pelosi’s whole family”.

There is mounting concern about the safety of politicians in the US almost two years after a mob of pro-Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in January, 2021.

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TULSA, Okla. (Gray News) – Police in Tulsa are looking for a handyman who they say violently raped a 70-year-old woman at her home, resulting in “extremely serious injuries.”

According to the Tulsa Police Department, officers responded to a call at the home Wednesday evening when the victim reported that her handyman beat her and sexually assaulted her inside her home.

The woman was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries to her head, face and body, the police said.

Police are now looking for 40-year-old Elga Harper. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. Police said once Harper is captured, he will be charged with two counts of first-degree rape, first degree robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and battery, and assault and battery by means likely to produce death.

Detectives said while Harper has a beard in most photographs, they believe he likely shaved his face to change his appearance.

Police are asking anyone who sees Harper to call 911.

Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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