Law Enforcement

HARRISBURG - Liquor privatization is bad. That seemed to be the sum total of testimony Tuesday at the first of three hearings in the state Senate on Gov. Corbett's push to get Pennsylvania out of the liquor business. The hearing in the Law and Justice Committee focused on the impact privatization would have on public health and law enforcement. Witnesses from the union for state troopers, who enforce liquor laws, and from drug and alcohol prevention and treatment groups said privatizing would lead to more liquor outlets, more drinking, and more alcohol-related crime and violence.

A raffle to raise money for the Chester County sheriff's K-9 unit ordinarily would qualify as the working definition of a low-profile event, but not this time. That's because one of the prizes this year, an AR-15 rifle, has been at the center of a national controversy. Law-enforcement officials identified an AR-15 as the primary weapon used in the shootings in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December. Sheriff Carolyn Bunny Welsh said the rifle was one of several weapons donated last year to the charity raffle by "a private individual" at a dinner for hunters and law enforcement personnel.

Forget why and how Executive Protective Services formed. The phenomenal story is that a horrific event fueled its early success, to be followed by other acts that have further fed the security firm's growth and propelled it to profitability. "Destiny played the biggest role," Stuart J. Visnov, one of EPS's founders, said last week in outlining the factors behind the Limerick company's traction. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The heinous slaughters inside a movie theater in Colorado and an elementary school in Connecticut.

NOTING THAT 13 people were killed in Philadelphia between 1999 and 2009 due to witness intimidation, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey yesterday announced plans to introduce a bill to make such intimidation a federal crime. "Witness intimidation is a cowardly crime that has a chilling effect on the work of our region's law enforcement," Casey said at a news conference at 30th Street Station. "This legislation will give law enforcement and prosecutors additional tools to combat witness intimidation.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - As thousands gathered at a campus memorial, slain Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier was remembered Wednesday for his dedication to law enforcement and his love of people. Vice President Biden joined students, faculty and staff, and law enforcement officials from across the nation at Briggs Field for the service to honor an officer who was already well-respected by his colleagues and superiors, and popular with students after little more than a year on campus.

Penn's top public safety official said Monday that the university is continuing to meet with law enforcement personnel at the city, state, and federal levels to make sure that fans are "totally comfortable" while attending this week's Penn Relays. Maureen Rush, vice president of public safety and superintendent of the University of Pennsylvania police, reiterated the ban on backpacks, large bags, and large coolers for spectators. She said that there will be stricter and more rigorous enforcement of regulations that have been in place "probably since 9/11," and that bomb-sniffing dogs and bomb-disposal units will be on site.

THERE IS NO SINGLE thing to say about Boston's ordeal that ended Friday with the capture of the second bombing suspect in Watertown, Mass. Rather, there are many. For example, the shock that it took only two people to bring an entire city to its knees - the intense manhunt completely shut down Boston and surrounding towns for an entire day on Friday after Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev conducted their panicked ping-ponging flight around Boston. That flight included robbery, carjacking an SUV and killing an MIT officer, and more than one shootout with police.

WATERTOWN, Mass. - Deanna Finn now knows what a gunshot sounds like. She knows it doesn't sound the way it does on TV - it's quieter, somehow, "more like a pellet gun. " She knows what it's like to have SWAT teams running through the front yard, to hear helicopters overhead, to peer outside only to have a frantic police officer yell at her to get back into the house. She knows what it's like to crouch, terrified, on the bathroom floor, and to listen to a firefight down the street.

With reports that a possible suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing may have been pinpointed in photos taken at the scene, facial-recognition technology may be one of the most powerful tools investigators have at their disposal to attach a name to the image. Counterterrorism specialists said authorities would aim to match the faces of any possible suspects against an array of databases for visas, passports, and driver's licenses in an effort to determine exactly who was in the area when two bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three people and injuring at least 180. In criminal investigations small and large, one lead can change everything.

BOSTON - Investigators poring over photos and video from the Boston Marathon have an image of a potential suspect in the deadly bombing but do not know his name and have not questioned him, a law enforcement official said Wednesday. The news came with Boston in a state of high excitement over a possible breakthrough in the case and conflicting information over whether a suspect was in custody. Police and reporters converged on the federal courthouse in the afternoon. Several news organizations reported earlier in the day that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a department store midway between the sites of Monday's two bomb blasts, which killed three people and wounded more than 170. A law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity and was not authorized to discuss the case publicly confirmed only that investigators had an image of a potential suspect and had not established his identity.