A Crime-Fighting Tattoo Database; St. Louis County’s New Angry Municipal Battle
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Also: Deckhands needed to ease ‘silver tsunami’ in Puget Sound and Mississippi’s somewhat good news.
Here’s some of what we’ve been reading today ...
DETROIT, Michigan: If you’re a criminal, that tattoo you may have might be the critical clue that police need to arrest you. And in Michigan’s largest city, police have access to a tattoo database with more than 100,000 images of body art that can be quickly searched and lead to arrests, as the Detroit Free Press reports. Anil Jain, a Michigan State University computer science professor, helped develop the database and says that that although tattoos “aren’t uniquely matched to a suspect” they can make it easier for law enforcement to focus their search. [Detroit Free Press]
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Missouri: Many municipal leaders in St. Louis County are angry with newly passed county legislation for operational, hiring and training standards for local-level police departments in the county. As St. Louis Public Radio reports, many mayors and police chiefs don’t believe that the county has any authority to regulate their police departments. “The bill before you is an intolerable act, just as onerous to your municipalities and constituents as the tyranny of Great Britain was to our founding fathers,” the mayor of Florissant, Thomas Schneider, said. “And if you pass this, there will be a legal war that you cannot win.” The county executive, Steve Stenger, says the regulations are lawful under the county’s charter amendment. [St. Louis Public Radio]
SEATTLE, Washington: When you think of the looming “silver tsunami” of retirements that state and local government are facing, graying personnel in cube farms and in agency office buildings often come to mind. In Washington state, the extensive ferry system will be facing its own retirement wave, as The Seattle Times points out. It’s not at crisis level yet, but Washington State Ferries are looking to recruit 60 new deckhands who might someday rise to captain. Currently, 62 percent of the ferry system’s 79 captains are age 55 and older. [The Seattle Times]
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minnesota: This Minneapolis suburb was on track to be the first jurisdiction in Minnesota to ban the use of plastic bags but is pulling back, according to the Star Tribune. But St. Louis Park is moving forward on a separate environmentally friendly measure: Requiring that all take-away food containers be recyclable, reusable or compostable. [Star Tribune]
JACKSON, Mississippi: While the Magnolia State still has a high infant mortality rate compared to the rest of the nation, there’s some good news, The state’s infant mortality rate has been dropping faster than the rest of the nation’s, The Clarion-Ledger reports. The state’s rate dropped 15 percent between 2005 and 2013 and, when including data from 2014, it’s a 28 percent drop. “Even though we are at the bottom of heap, we are improving,” Mary Currier, the state’s health officer, told the newspaper. “We just need to keep our focus.” [The Clarion-Ledger]
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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