Take for instance the incident of a natural gas pipe was shoved through a hole drilled into the roof of the gang enforcement unit’s headquarters. The building filled with the flammable vapor but an officer smelled the vapor and everyone was evacuated before anything happened.

Then there was a ballistic contraption that was attached to a sliding security fence around the building. When an officer opened the black steel gate, it triggered the mechanism that sent a bullet within eight inches of his face. Thankfully, the officer was not hurt. Another attempt was made to booby trap a police officer’s unmarked car while he went into a convenience store.

Police believe it may be the work of an outlaw motorcycle gang, the Vagos. It all started when a member of this gang died and the police gang force monitored his funeral services. This seemed to anger the members of the gang. There are about 200 Vagos members in Riverside County. This gang specializes in methamphetamine sales, identity theft and violence. Recently about 30 members of the Vagos gang were arrested as part of a crackdown across the state and in Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

During a violent rainstorm, the thieves drilled a hole in the ceiling of the warehouse, disabled a burglar alarm in the building and carted away dozens of pallets. Police officials speculate the drugs could be headed for the black market and possibly overseas where the demand is great for medicines made in the U.S. Common sense says that this seems to be the real the reason for the burglary.

However, an Eli Lilly spokesperson said in a published report that the loss may not have a material financial impact for the company and has not disrupted supply of medicines to the east coast. Both Connecticut police and the FBI are investigating this burglary.

During its 60th year anniversary, the FBI is celebrating this historic occasion with a book that talks about the list and shares pictures of all 494 “Top Ten” Most Wanted fugitives throughout the years.

Most of the fugitives are murderers with Thomas James Holden being the first top ten. He was wanted for killing his wife and her two brothers. Of the 494 fugitives throughout the years, 463 have been captured or located.

The shortest amount of time anyone spent on the list was Billy Austin Bryant in 1969 for two hours. The oldest was 69-year-old James J. Bulger who was added to the list in 1999.

Today, Eduardo Ravelo, Usama Bin Laden, Jason Derek Brown and Joe Luis Saenz are just some of the names on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list.

This trial was filled with threats and intimidations to witnesses. Willie Clark’s defense was that he wasn’t at the shooting and that his fellow gang member, Daniel Harris did the shooting. However, Daniel Harris did testify and was given plea deals on his Federal drug charges. Over 40 witnesses were called to testify in this trial. Witnesses who did testify said that Willie Clark bragged about the shooting and how Darrent Williams was disrespecting him before the shooting occurred.

Last week, a jury found Willie Clark guilty in the drive-by shooting murder of Darrent Williams. Clark unloaded his .40-caliber handgun into the limousine full of innocent people that killed Darrent Williams. The jury found him guilty of 21 counts and 2 counts of first-degree murder, 1 for the murder of Williams and 16 counts of attempted murder for each surviving passengers in the car. Willie Clark faces life in prison.

Darrent Williams was against gangs. He was planning to talk to kids in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas about not joining gangs. He wanted to let the kids know that they could make a better life for themselves without being a gang member.

Darrent Williams’ mother was thankful of the verdict but admitted that they would never know what really happened that night. She hopes that this will help start to clean up the streets of gang members.

Catalytic converters contain precious metals including platinum, palladium and rhodium. With the economy as bad as it is today, the cost of the metals contained in the coverter makes stealing the converters very lucrative for thieves. Accessing the converters located on the underside of a vehicle is easy to do. These thieves have targeted areas such as park-n-ride partking lots. Seventeen thefts have been reported in Aurora and six in Thornton, Colorado.

Toyota trucks and SUVs are the most targeted vehicles because of their high ground clearance and easily removable bolt on the catalytic converters. Even if the converters are welded on, thieves are still able to steal it.

Damage to the vehicles’ wiring or fuel line from stolen converters occurs. Plus the cost of replacing the converter can run into several hundred dollars.

Several reasons for this are more motorists are buckling up, better-drunk driving enforcements and more enforcement of traffic laws. There are more safety improvements in cars, and the economic situation leads to fewer drivers on the road.

The good news is that seat belt use climbed to 84 percent in 2009. Many states allow police to stop a vehicle for a seat belt violation; even if this is the only violation an officer observes. With new cars and trucks with side air bags that protect the head and midsection becoming standard equipment as well as electronic stability control, helps motorists avoid rollover crashes.

States have pushed tougher laws to reduce drunken driving. In addition, more stringent laws against distracted driving including text messaging have been adopted by many states.

These e-mails say that you owe money to an unnamed creditor and ask you to pay the outstanding balances via PayPal. This is fraudulent and you should NOT provide any personal information or payment to Experian Financial Services of St. Paul.

As you may know, Experian is a global credit bureau but there is no connection between them and the fraudulent e-mails that are being sent out.

Minnesota law requires the Minnesota Department of Commerce license any entity in the business of collecting claims on behalf of another. Neither Experian Portfolio Services nor Experian Financial Services Corp. is a licensed collection agency in Minnesota.

If you receive an e-mail or a letter from Experian Portfolio Services or Experian Financial Services Corp. disregard these e-mails or letters.

The organized crime ring has members in the Twin Cities and recruits on Facebook and other social networking web sites. This crime ring steals identities, raids bank and credit card accounts and defrauds businesses and banks nationwide. In addition, they buy stolen identities from employees of check cashing services and Internet data brokers.

The fraud ring has roots in West Africa and Eastern Europe. About thirty to forty percent of fraudulent check activity is in the Twin Cities. Some banks working with investigators are Wells Fargo, TCF Bank and US Bank.

NamUs, a free online system, is a clearinghouse for missing persons and unidentified decedent records. This system can be searched by medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officials and the general public to solve cases. By entering information such as description, photos, fingerprints, dental records and DNA information, the database provides potential matches and helps to further investigations.

So far, about 6,200 sets of remains and nearly 2,800 missing people have been entered. However, only about 1,100 of the nearly 17,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide are registered to use the system. This system has helped to solve 16 cases since it became operational last year.

As a result, legislation has been introduced named, “Billy’s Law” after a missing person who vanished five years ago. The bill would help to link NamUs with major FBI crime database. The cost of the bill is $10 million in grants annually to police, sheriffs, medical examiners and coroners to train people to use NamUs and to help cover the costs of entering date into the system. It will also provide another $2.4 million a year to run the system and to ensure permanent funding. The bill has passed the House and is pending in the Senate. Supporters are confident it will easily pass.

Take for instance in the state of Illinois. Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, a Democrat, described its early release program as “a big mistake.” This program sent some convicts who had committed violent crimes home from prison in a matter of weeks. Of more than 1,700 prisoners released over three months, more than 50 were soon accused of new violations.

The state of Michigan seems to have the worse case scenario. The state has the fifth largest prison system in the country. Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, a Democrat, has approved 133 commutations, which is more then some of her predecessors. In addition, she has expanded the state’s parole board to 15 members to allow more cases to be considered, and recently proposed a budget that presumes 7,500 fewer prisoners next year for savings of more than $130 million.

However, local prosecutors across the state of Michigan are challenging at least 20 of the parole decisions. Among the 13,541 inmates released on parole in 2009 was Scott W. Hankins, who has been convicted twice in sex cases and was given a thirty-year sentence. He has been accused of molesting other girls he had met at church, some of whom were developmentally disabled. The youngest girl was only seven years old. This man shows no remorse for his actions and should not have been allowed out on parole.

During these tough economic times, state governments still have the responsibility to keep their citizens safe. Cutting budgets in their prison populations should be carefully reviewed and be the last budget item to be cut.