The power of video and the lack of details. The dangers of policiing

Recently on Facebook I saw a post someone had shared from Uniform Stories, a Facebook page whose short description describes the page as "Giving a voice to military, police, fire and ems personnel…one story at a time. www.UniformStories.com". 

The video post is titled "The Dangers of Policing" and is caption with the following, "Let's show a bit more appreciation for the sacrifices police make for our communities. After all, they're all that stands between the monsters and the weak." 

The video appears to be copy of a ABC Nightly News broadcast that highlights multiple  attacks on police half of which the assailants are armed. With chilling background music it goes through 15 separate video while highlighting in bold text "108, the number of duty deaths in 2014".  Actually the year is not yet over but I decided to take a look at those numbers.



Now don't get me wrong, law enforcement is a tough job at best but in this time of heightened emotions don't let those emotions cloud facts. To imply that every death is from gunfire our other assaults is just plain wrong.

The number 108 which has been quoted in the media a bit lately comes from a webpage called Officer Down Memorial Page (www.odmp.org). The memorial page includes a database for each fallen officer and canine on duty.

Looking at the video you begin to notice three main themes. The 108 number includes:

1. assaults (whether with or with out gunfire) on 
2. municipal police, sheriffs deputies, and state troopers,
3. while confronting "monsters"

I decided to analyze the exact same data and came up with some interesting numbers that highlight the power of obfuscation. What I found is that some of the clips in the video which could be identified did not even happen in 2014. When they narrator mentions a SEPTA officer (Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority), I could not find any officer that worked for that agency within the database. Likewise the clip at 0:14 that occurred in West Union I could not find any listing in the database although I was able to find this video that showed the officer getting back up. 

What I did find out that more than just municipal police officers, sheriffs and state troopers the list of officers down included federal, state, city officials as well as employees of the US Navy, US Forest Service, Navajo Reservation Police, Border Patrol Agents, and even Corrections Officers. Killed by gunfire. Not likely most experienced heart attacks or were involved in traffic accidents, not exactly video worthy.

Geo-coded map of Officer Down

So lets get started and look at the data. Here is a map of the database that I geo-coded and highlighted by cause of death. As for officers killed in the line of duty exactly half  (fig. 1) are due to assaults (which includes gunfire, "assault", and vehicle assault). Actually the third highest cause of death is from a heart attack (fig 2). Gunfire accounted for less than 40% of all fallen officers (43).

And the belief that they are all police, sheriffs, and state troopers is also an obfuscation. Included in the "other" category; BART police (accidental shooting by partner), US Navy Security Forces (gunfire), Corrections Officers (heart attack), Fish and Game Wardens (auto accident), Border Patrol (auto accident), Animal Control Officer (auto accident),  School District Cops (heart attack), University Police (heart attack), US Veterans Affairs Officer (heart attack).

Here is a link to the database taken from the Officer Down website.

Fig 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Note: After review the description of the cause of death of Mississippi Game Warden John Collum, I decided to reclassify it from Vehicle Assault to Vehicle Pursuit. The officer was struck by a 19 year old man who was not involved in the initial crime. Although the driver was charged negligent homicide he was unaware of who he struck at the time of the accident.

After cutbacks East Bay MUD to consider emergency water purchases.

The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) board will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, December 9 to consider a staff recommendation to purchase emergency drought water supplies in addition to raising water bills to pay for it. According to EBMUD, a call for increased customer conservation, a second purchase of federal water and a 15 percent surcharge on all water used by customers will be among the staff recommendations before the District Board of Directors. 

A typical customer uses 246 gallons per day so a 15 percent reduction would amount to 37 less per day. According to the US EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) a typical American Household uses 400 gallons of water per day. On average, approximately 70 percent of that water is used indoors, with the bathroom being the largest consumer (a toilet alone can use 27 percent!).

This past April, EBMUD purchased and delivered about 18,600 acre feet of water from the Sacramento River through its federal Central Valley Project (CVP) contract. One acre foot is 325,851 gallons, or approximately the amount of water used by three average East Bay households in a year. The approximate $8 million cost of purchasing, pumping and treating that water was absorbed by the district through a surplus sale of a Castro Valley property and budget savings over the past fiscal year.

Tomorrow, the Board of Directorswill consider making a second purchase of federal water before a February 28 deadline when its current CVP allocation expires. EBMUD has 41,625 acre feet available to purchase before the deadline. Staff will recommend the board approve purchasing 16,000 acre feet starting in January to refill local reservoirs. If a federal allocation is received on March 1 and if there has not been enough precipitation in the EBMUD watershed, staff will recommend making an additional purchase of up to 19,000 acre feet.

Freeport Intake on the Sacramento River

This purchased water would flow for four months from the Sacramento River into the EBMUD system via the Freeport Regional Water Facility in Sacramento County (link to map). The cost to purchase, pump and treat it is estimated to cost up to $16 million.Costs will be offset by adding via a 14 percent surcharge on all customers’ water use charges to take effect as soon as the emergency water starts to flow. If the purchase occurs and the surcharge takes effect, the average EBMUD residential customer could see their bills increase by an average of $4.30 per month, depending on their level of conservation, until the drought costs are paid.

According to a quote by John Coleman, a water board member from the Walnut Creek District, highlighted in an Inside Bay Area News story, "the delivery from the Sacramento River is a history milestone in protecting customers against shortages. We spent decades and hundreds of millions of dollars ot come up with a collaborative project, Now I feel it's proper to say it's time to take it." 

If the drought continues into next summer, staff is recommending higher surcharges be considered to recoup the costs of future water purchases, increased conservation outreach and lost revenue due to the drought.

TIMELINE FOR EBMUD's SACRAMENTO RIVER WATER SUPPLY
1970 -- EBMUD signs federal contract to divert water from American River but has no way to deliver it.
1972 -- EBMUD is sued to block the diversion.
1990 -- EBMUD and Sacramento County Water Agency begin water negotiations.
2002 -- Deal is struck for EBMUD and Sacramento County Water Agency to build joint project at Freeport to divert Sacramento River water for both regions
2011 -- Joint water project is finished, and Sacramento County takes first water.
2014 -- EBMUD begins pumping Sacramento River water to East Bay.

Oakland Tribune: 

Oakland Tribune editorial: EBMUD voters who care about controlling costs and tempering rate increases should back Katy Foulkes

Inside Bay Area News: 

EBMUD taps Sacramento River water for first time to avoid rationing

http://www.mercurynews.com/my-town/ci_27080005/ebmud-decide-raising-rates-and-buying-emergency-water?source=autofeed#

More interesting country comparisons - Lessons from Japan?

Within the last five years who hasn't encountered on of these guys or gals depicted in this Portlandia skit. Dressed in their Rapha bike gear, with their distinctive Chrome bag atop their lasted fixie bike, they strut a style. 

The more I see them showing up at City Hall in their Caltrans Orange or their neon green safety vests I remember attending Mikael Coleville-Andersen's talk in San Francisco. 

"In Copenhagen we don't give our bicycles special names, we don't were special clothes to cycle in; the bicycle is just a tool to get around town. Americans don't give their vacuum cleaners names and they don't dress up to vacuum the carpet, why do you when you ride a bike. "

This Google street view photo (below) was taken less than 200 feet from the front door of the house I lived in while studying in Japan. This mother has a child in the front and a seat for the older child in the back with the front area of the bike for shopping and groceries.

She doesn't wear special clothes, she isn't part of some subculture. She is just a mom on a bike. Maybe when bicycling gets close to the 15% share level we will see how extravagant all this "bike posing" is.

Lesson from Japan?

Most of the time I generally ignore the Roadshow column in the San Jose Mercury News. It ends up being mostly compilations of the same old complaints on local roadways. But Sunday's column caught my eye. Local residents were complaining about neighbors using traffic safety cones to reserve parking spaces in front of their property.  After reading a couple of readers letters, two immediate thoughts came to mind; How cities don't realize the negative consequence of free public goods; in this case on-street parking. 

Since parking is free, soon residents begin to think that the free parking rights are included with the property. Wrong. But try convincing a car dependent homeowner otherwise. 

The second though that came to mind was how we solve problems and challenges in this country. We very rarely look to other cites, states, or countries to see what others have tried and figure out why it did or didn't work. 

In Tokyo you would not have a problem with neighbors reserving parking spaces;  because no one is allowed to park overnight and daytime parking is allowed only in metered spaces. That's right, no on-street parking at any cost. It's called the "Proof of Parking Law" and it was explained to me by Nobu the oldest son of the family I lived with while a student in Tokyo. He said that before you can by a car in Tokyo you have to present you Proof of Parking Permit (Shako Shomei-sho) issued by a local Tokyo Police Department office. This is top of many other taxes and required permits.

Do they have these type of problems in Japan? No not at all.

A Google Street View of my residence while a student in Japan.

When parking is so freely available, whether at work, at home, or at the grocery story it is difficult for a city to reduce vehicle miles traveled or VMT. No matter how ambitious you General Plan is, if the system is set up to subsidize private automobile operation getting people out of their cars will be an uphill battle.