NYPD’s Use of ‘Broken Windows’ Crime-Fighting Strategy Comes Under Fire

By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com  The Justice Department is mulling whether to investigate NYPD’s use of the controversial crime fighting strategy known as “broken windows,” the New York Daily News reports. The Justice Department Civil Rights Division is considering a request from six members of Congress to investigate whether black people and Hispanics are disproportionately affected…

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Congressional Watchdogs Consider Removing Secret Service from Homeland Security Department

By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Hoping to address low morale and security blunders at the Secret Service, some congressional watchdogs are proposing to limit the agency’s role of protecting the president, Time reports. Perhaps most important, the proposal includes removing Secret Service from the Department of Homeland Security, which has struggled as a giant bureaucracy. “Long-term,…

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Next Secret Service Director Will Face Herculean Task to Raise Morale, Improve Protection

By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Whoever takes over the embattled Secret Service will face an insurmountable task. They must handle plunging morale, a tarnished reputation, budget holes and plenty of blunders that led to the resignation of Director Julia Pierson, the Wall Street Journal reports. How disgruntled are employees? A 2013 survey found that Secret Service…

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Republicans Accuse a Top DEA Official of Intimidation in Complaint to Inspector General

By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Did one of the top leaders of the DEA intimidate members of Congress while discussing a prescription drug bill? That’s the claim by two Republicans – Reps. Marsha Blackburn, Tenn., and Tom Marino, Pa. – who say in a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general that DEA Deputy Assistant Administrator Joe…

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Employees: Byzantine Oversight of Homeland Security is Crushing Morale, Hindering Work

By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com  Homeland Security has so much congressional oversight that it’s damaging morale and making the work more difficult, the Washington Post reports. Consider the number of committees and subcommittees that oversee DHS – more than 90, which exceeds the number that has jurisdiction over the Defense Department by nearly three fold. “It makes…

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