OAKLAND PUBLIC SAFETY RADIO SYSTEM NOT WORKING: OAKLAND (AP) — An Oakland city report says a new radio system for police and firefighters has numerous deficiencies and has given officers trouble even communicating with each other.
The Oakland Tribune reports that a city-commissioned study released Tuesday discovered that the system implemented last year is plagued by poor reception and audio and speaker problems.
Police union President Barry Donelan said officers have no confidence in it.
Officers and fire officials switched to the new digital system in June. The change comes after years of complaining about dead spots and malfunctions with the old, analog radio system.
The infrastructure and equipment cost about $18 million. Installation was funded by federal grants.
City officials are now working with consultants on cost estimates to fix it or join a regional radio collaborative.
STABBING SUSPECT SHOT BY SF POLICE HAS DIED: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco police say a man shot by an officer has died after he allegedly attacked a co-worker at a chocolate factory moments earlier.
Police Chief Greg Suhr said the shooting occurred Wednesday in the city's Financial District shortly after the 30-year-old temporary worker slashed his co-worker in the arm with a box cutter at the TCHO New American Chocolate at Pier 17 along the city's Embarcadero.
Suhr said a female officer giving chase ordered the suspect to drop the box cutter when he lunged at her with it. She shot him twice in the upper torso.
Suhr said officers began performing CPR on the suspect as he was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries. The suspect's name has not been released.
Police say the slashing victim at the factory suffered minor injuries.
SF SHERIFF'S WIFE TO TESTIFY AT MISCONDUCT HEARING: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is expected to testify Wednesday at his misconduct hearing.
KGO-TV says Eliana Lopez returned from her native Venezuela to appear before the city Ethics Commission. The commission is deciding whether to recommend removing Mirkarimi from his post.
Mayor Ed Lee cited Mirkarimi with misconduct and suspended him without pay in March, shortly after the sheriff pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment for bruising his wife's arm during a New Year's Eve dispute.
Mirkarimi's wife had refused to cooperate with authorities, calling the mayor's efforts a political witch hunt.
DEPUTY PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO DATA SHARING: PLEASANTON (AP) — An Alameda County sheriff's deputy has pleaded not guilty to accessing and sharing confidential information from a county database system.
The Contra Costa Times says Deputy Ryan Silcocks entered the plea Tuesday to three misdemeanor counts. He's on administrative leave from his job.
Authorities claim that Silcocks illegally searched the county database in January and February and sent information to an attorney he'd been dating. The information allegedly was used against a Pleasanton man in a child custody case.
Lesley Regina, a family law attorney in San Ramon, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor charge of knowingly receiving records she wasn't authorized to possess.
LA FEDERAL JUDGE REJECTS BID TO HALT FOIE GRAS BAN: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles federal judge has denied an emergency bid to halt California's ban on the sale of foie gras.
City News Service reports U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said Wednesday that the matter isn't urgent and a hearing will be set for next month.
The lawsuit was brought by a Canadian exporter of the fattened liver delicacy, a foie gras producer based in New York and a Southern California restaurateur, Hot's Restaurant Group.
The delicacy prepared by force-feeding ducks and geese was banned in California July 1.
The lawsuit claims California's ban is written so broadly that it also applies to skins, feathers and other by-products of ducks raised primarily for foie gras, and violates the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause by affecting companies from outside the state.
