Law Enforcement

Linda Davidson The Washington Post Mark and Jackie Barden hug their 11-year-old daughter, Natalie, before she goes to school in Newtown, Conn., in May. T hey had promised to try everything, so Mark Barden went down into the basement to begin another project in memory of Daniel. The families of Sandy Hook Elementary were collaborating on a Mother's Day card, which would be produced by a marketing firm and mailed to hundreds of politicians across the country. "A difference-maker," the...

BOSTON — A former Massachusetts State Police investigator who doggedly pursued James "Whitey" Bulger testified Thursday that his efforts to bust the longtime Irish mob boss and other organized-crime figures were disrupted by FBI agents and Justice Department officials. Thomas Foley, who rose to superintendent of the state police, said wiretaps were blown, suspects were tipped off and damaging leaks slipped out from federal law enforcement officials who were supposed to pursue local mobsters.

A Chechen man who was fatally shot by an FBI agent last week during an interview about one of the Boston bombing suspects was unarmed, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. An air of mystery has surrounded the FBI shooting of Ibragim Todashev , 27, since it occurred in Todashev's apartment early on the morning of May 22. The FBI said in a news release that day that Todashev, a former Boston resident who knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed during an interview with several law enforcement...

SWITCH DEMAND: New York's top prosecutor says law enforcement officials nationwide are demanding the creation of a "kill switch" that would render smartphones inoperable after they are stolen. COALITION: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the formation of a coalition of law enforcement agencies devoted to stamping out what he called an "epidemic" of smartphone robberies. SUMMIT WITH MANUFACTUERS: The announcement came on the same day Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney...

Doug Fine is the author of " Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution ," in which he followed one legal medicinal cannabis plant from farm to patient. With 16 states having decriminalized or legalized cannabis for non-medical use and eight more heading toward some kind of legalization, federal prohibition's days seem numbered. You might wonder what America will look like when marijuana is in the corner store and at the farmers market. In three years spent researching that question, I found some ideas about...

She could have been fired years ago for allegedly letting gang members stage a brutal attack on an inmate in his cell. Instead, corrections officer Antonia Allison was allowed to resign from her job at the Baltimore City Detention Center in 2006 without any mark on her personnel record and then return to the state-run jail nine months later, prison system officials acknowledge. Last month, Allison, 27, became one of 13 corrections officers indicted in a corruption case so widespread...

A divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that police may take DNA samples when booking those arrested for serious crimes, narrowly upholding a Maryland law and opening the door to more widespread collection of DNA by law enforcement. The court ruled 5 to 4 that government has a legitimate interest in collecting DNA from arrestees, just as it takes photographs and collects fingerprints. Rejecting the view that the practice constitutes an unlawful search , the...

Amy Meyer is donations manager for Ching Farm Rescue and Sanctuary in Riverton, Utah. A few months ago, I stood outside a slaughterhouse in Draper, Utah, filming what most people would not dare look at for a moment. I saw cows that were being led into the building struggle to turn around once they smelled and heard the misery that awaited them. I saw piles of horns scattered around the property and flesh spew from a chute on the side of the windowless building. I also witnessed inexcusable animal abuse...

Like many people excited about a new home, Lamont Butler invited friends over to check his out. He had a lot to show them. The Bethesda mansion is among the largest in the region and featured floors of imported marble, 12 bedroom suites, six kitchens and a history of playing host to political gatherings, including ones during which Bill Clinton and Al Gore helped plant trees out back. But the personable 28-year-old, known to wear a red fez, didn't own the mansion; he had simply slipped inside...

Twenty-eight percent of traffic accidents occur when people talk on cellphones or send text messages while driving, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Safety Council . The vast majority of those crashes, 1.4 million annually, are caused by cellphone conversations, and 200,000 are blamed on text messaging, according to the report from the council, a nonprofit group recognized by congressional charter as a leader on safety....

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Law enforcement officials: Santa Monica gunman related to first 2 victims. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Amy Meyer is donations manager for Ching Farm Rescue and Sanctuary in Riverton, Utah. A few months ago, I stood outside a slaughterhouse in Draper, Utah, filming what most people would not dare look at for a moment. I saw cows that were being led into the building struggle to turn around once they smelled and heard the misery that awaited them. I saw piles of horns scattered around the property and flesh spew from a chute on the side of the windowless building. I also witnessed inexcusable animal...

The June 1 news article " Chechen lunged at agent with stick, officials say " showed again how the public and justice are ill-served by the granting of anonymity to government and law enforcement officials. A man has been killed. The Post has published a list of conflicting statements from unidentified sources. Now tell me, who is running this game? What exactly do we know? And what role does The Post think it is playing? David M. Siegler , Oakton

NEW YORK — U.S. authorities working with the Jamaican government had no duty to review the legality of Jamaica's surveillance of a U.S. citizen suspected of drug crimes, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. Facing conspiracy and other charges, Stephen Lee asked a Brooklyn judge to suppress wiretaps from Jamaica that the U.S. government planned to use as evidence against him. The judge denied Lee's request, and he was convicted in 2012 of conspiring to distribute and conspiring to...

Doug Fine is the author of " Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution ," in which he followed one legal medicinal cannabis plant from farm to patient. With 16 states having decriminalized or legalized cannabis for non-medical use and eight more heading toward some kind of legalization, federal prohibition's days seem numbered. You might wonder what America will look like when marijuana is in the corner store and at the farmers market. In three years spent researching that question, I...

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — Officials involved in a two-year joint law enforcement effort fight against southern West Virginia's illegal prescription drug trade say the initiative is making a difference. U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin and leadership from area law enforcement community announced additional indictments this week as part of the Bluefield Pill Initiative. Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports (http://bit.ly/16Q4fEv) that Goodwin says recent indictments bring the number of drug...

GOVERNMENT COLLECTION of DNA is as tantalizing to law enforcement as it is terrifying to those who see it as an unwarranted intrusion on privacy . A split Supreme Court on Monday took its stand on the side of law enforcement, finding that the government can take DNA from suspects arrested under suspicion of violent crime. The five-justice majority made the right call. At issue was a Maryland law that requires people arrested for violent crime to give a DNA swab to authorities.

Although police feared he was heavily armed, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing had no firearms when he came under a barrage of police gunfire that struck the boat where he was hiding , according to multiple federal law enforcement officials. Authorities said they were desperate to capture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev so he could be questioned. The FBI, however, declined to discuss what prompted the gunfire. Other law enforcement officials said the shooting may...

RICHMOND, Va. — Hours after Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli complained that the Internal Revenue Service was blocking the release of more than $100 million owed to Virginia from a Medicaid settlement, federal officials said Wednesday that they are prepared to cut a $10 million check but need additional information before transferring the rest. The state is entitled to the money because it led an investigation that resulted in Abbott Laboratories paying $1.5 billion to settle...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The guard force at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is getting reinforcements from Puerto Rico. A spokesman for the U.S. Army Reserve says 125 soldiers from a military police company based in Puerto Rico will be heading to Guantanamo to work inside the detention center. Army Maj. Carlos Cuebas says many members of the unit have civilian law enforcement experience, including work as police or prison guards. Cuebas said Wednesday that the...