DETROIT - Metro Detroit police officers are among many public servants who maintain private lives on the Internet. On Facebook, they post photos, tag friends and change status updates. On Twitter, they post plans, thoughts or locations. But depending on what they write or post, an officer could be breaking confidentiality, undermining an investigation, or worse -- potentially violating someone's constitutional ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - A 10-foot-long alligator has taken a bite out of a Florida deputy sheriff's cruiser. Authorities say Alachua County Deputy Victor Borrero spotted the gator Saturday evening near the Gainesville Golf and Country Club. It attacked the patrol car while the deputy was waiting for an alligator trapper to show up. Sheriff's spokesman Todd Kelly says the car's front ...

TRENTON, NJ – A Trenton man was shot and killed by three police officers early this morning after they responded to a report of an assault in progress on Frazier Street, officials said. Corey Brown, 31, aggressively approached the three officers and refused to show his hands before they opened fire, acting Police Director Joseph Juniak said in a statement. Brown, ...

MILFORD, CT — Police commissioners in Milford Monday night fired a town police officer charged with manslaughter in a crash that killed two teenagers in June. Commissioners agreed with Police Chief Keith Mello's recommendation to fire Officer Jason Anderson of Milford. The accident in Orange killed two 19-year-olds, David Servin and Ashlie Krakowski, both of Orange.Related: Conn. Officer Charged In Fatal ...

HOUSTON - It was a bold move by the United States government: “You took out one of ours, we're coming after yours.” We saw evidence of that retaliation by the government in north Houston where local and federal agents went after suspects with alleged ties to Mexican drug cartels. Thomas Hinojosa, with the Drug Enforcement Agency, would not confirm the effort ...

HEMET, CA - Authorities were investigating Tuesday whether a vintage military rocket discovered on the roof of a Hemet market, pointed in the direction of a nearby police facility, is related to a series of attacks targeting the Hemet police. The rocket, with its motor ignited, was discovered Thursday after firefighters checked the Los Altos Market rooftop and found a wooden ...

EAST HAVEN — Officer Dennis Spaulding has a knack for turning up in the middle of things — this time ticketing a police commissioner Tuesday moments after the commissioner left the police station. Police board member Joseph Civitello confirmed Tuesday night that Spaulding issued him an infraction for driving without a front marker plate. “He gave me a ticket,” Civitello said ...

ROANOKE, VA - Just as a woman flung herself off the 10th Street bridge into the path of an oncoming freight train, Roanoke police Officer N.D. Comas caught her leg. "Let me die!" she screamed. "Let me die." Comas, 28, had been patrolling nearby with his car windows down and heard the woman threatening to jump, he said Monday. As a ...

EVERETT, Wa. — Everett police Officer Troy Meade was found not guilty Monday of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a drunken man in a car last summer. A six-man, six-woman Snohomish County jury had deliberated for roughly five hours since Friday before reaching its decision. Meade didn't react when the first "not guilty" verdict was announced, ...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Authorities in New York arrested a convicted rapist on Monday in the slaying of a North Carolina police chief's daughter, hours after the lawman made an emotional plea for help tracking the suspect down. FBI agents and U.S. Marshals took Michael Neal Harvey, 34, into custody without incident in Niagara Falls, N.Y. He was wanted on a murder ...

MARICOPA COUNTY: Controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who began forcing jail inmates to wear pink "Go, Joe" undergarb 17 years ago, offers a Spanish-language version that says, "Vamos, Jose!" The Arizona Republic reports that the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America sells the new undergarb at a Phoenix Mexican restaurant. "It will raise more money to help at-risk youth, and it is ...

PHOENIX (AP) - Christmas carols will be filling the halls of the Maricopa County Jail Tuesday, when Sheriff Joe Arpaio holds a contest for inmates. The winner of the caroling contest will receive a full Christmas dinner for him or herself, and their cellmates. As part of this competition, each inmate must sing a well known Christmas carol. Sheriff's officials say ...

WEST PALM BEACH - Drug agents raided 11 pain clinics from Miami to West Palm Beach on Wednesday, arresting 23 people and seizing $2.5 million in cash and dozens of cars in the biggest single strike yet at Florida's pain pill industry. Among those arrested were four physicians, including the son of Broward Medical Examiner Joshua Perper, and five owners of ...

SMITHFIELD -- The town's police chief has reprimanded a narcotics detective after someone stole $1,140.75 in drug money from his unmarked squad car. According to Smithfield personnel records, Joseph Calzaretta, 30, received an oral warning on Feb. 16 for "unsatisfactory or grossly inefficient job performance or detrimental personal conduct." Debbie Godwin, Smithfield's town clerk and human-resources officer, said the warning would ...

TAVARES, FL — Money pried a 22-caliber gun from Jim Carlton's hands. "Like everybody else, I can use an extra $50," said Carlton, 63, a music writer and guitarist in Mount Dora, who was among more than 180 people who took part Friday in the first-ever "Kicks-4-Guns" program in Lake County. His never-been-fired handgun had collected dust in a closet for ...

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage that wounded U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is mentally incompetent to stand trial, putting the criminal case against him on hold indefinitely. The decision by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns means Jared Lee Loughner, 21, will be sent to a federal facility for up to four months in a ...

OAKLAND, Calif.—A routine police stop in West Oakland erupted into gunfire when someone with a rifle opened fire from a high-rise building, police said Monday. No one was struck by the gunfire, and a search of the area failed to turn up the shooter, said Officer Jeff Thomason, a police spokesman. The incident began when an officer pulled a car over ...

DANE COUNTY, WI - A Dane County Sheriff’s deputy who fired his gun at a fleeing car after being injured Saturday night is on paid leave. That is normal protocol after “a critical incident,” Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney said Sunday. How long the deputy is on leave depends on his needs, Mahoney added. It could be a few days or ...

KANSAS CITY, MO - A lawsuit alleges that three Missouri police officers suffered permanent injuries after inhaling poisonous vapors in a 2007 raid on a methamphetamine lab. The current and former officers in Butler, Mo., allege in the lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Kansas City that they were not properly trained in the risks of meth labs and ...

An off-duty Philadelphia police officer who shot a neighbor has been placed on limited duty while the shooting is investigated, police said. The man the unidentified officer shot, Josh Taylor, 23, was rushed to a hospital Monday by another neighbor with a chest wound, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. Relatives told the newspaper they had been informed he was unlikely to ...