LA County may expand monitoring of sheriff’s hires
A Los Angeles County supervisor wants to monitor recently hired sheriff’s deputies for their first five years on the job.Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said Friday he plans to introduce a motion next Tuesday in response to recent reports that said the Sheriff’s Department loosened hiring standards to increase its ranks.
Reports from the Office of Independent Review, which overseas the department, said trainees were given test answers and hired despite disqualifying factors such as drug use, previous convictions and being fired from another law enforcement agency for using excessive force.
The Sheriff’s Department has hired more than 2,700 deputies in the past three years.
Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore says the department already monitors new hires.
Jersey State Police to triple their patrols on Rt. 78
State Police will triple the number of troopers targeting aggressive drivers on Route 78 after two people died Thursday, the third double-fatal accident on the highway in two months, it was announced yesterday.
The agency is increasing the monthly number of troopers from nine to 30, said Sgt. Stephen Jones, a spokesman.
The troopers will be responsible for monitoring the stretch between milepost 26 in Somerset County and the New Jersey Turnpike in Essex County, he said.
“The conditions obviously show this area is in need of extra attention,” Jones said.
The approvals and funding were granted by the state Department of Transportation, after the State Police Somerville Station noticed a spike in fatal accidents along the stretch beginning last year, Jones said.
The most recent accident occurred early Thursday morning, when two men — who have not yet been identified due to extensive burn injuries — were killed in a fiery one-car crash after the driver lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a sound barrier on the right embankment near Exit 45, police said. A preliminary investigation found that speed may have been a factor.
Jones said yesterday authorities believe the occupants may have included a man from Irvington and another man from St. Albans, New York. The Union County medical examiner is expected to release the results next week following a review of the victims’ dental records.
It was the fifth fatal collision along a 10-mile stretch in Union County since June, state statistics show. On Jan. 19, two Essex County women were killed near Exit 48 when their car went out of control and was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer, police said. Just a week before that crash, a Pennsylvania woman and a New York woman died in a seven-vehicle pileup that began when a dump truck and a tractor-trailer collided near Exit 49A in Union Township.
Police Capt. Ray Lasso, regional commander of Troop B State Police, said speeding is a recurring problem along the busy highway, which has a speed limit of 65 miles per hour with the exception of a few stretches.
“You’d hope people plan enough time, but occasionally you get a traffic jam. So, as a result, you have people who move faster to make up for it,” Lasso said. “It’s been a continued hot spot.”
The program will supplement regular patrolling as well as existing programs aimed to crack down on behavior such as drunken driving and failure to wear seat belts, he said.
The news was welcomed by some commuters, who said aggressive driving and rough road conditions have turned the highway into a treacherous thoroughfare.
Alan French, 56, of Berkeley Heights, said he commutes to Rutherford on the weekdays and often encounters drivers who speed, tailgate, and weave in and out of lanes. He believes driving conditions on the highway are made even worse by large cracks in the pavement.
“There are a lot of aggressive drivers. They’re speeding, they’ll come up and ride on your tail,” French said yesterday as he was driving home on Route 78. “I’m going a little more than 70 miles per hour, and there’s someone riding on my tail.”
Share this Blog
