Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/1731
AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: MAY 2009 3 Circle number 51 on the Reader Service Card. Order your own personal subscription today. Call 1-800-234-0056 or go to www.APBweb.com AP Photo American Police Beat (ISSN 1082-653X; USPS #24948), also hereafter referred to as "APB," is published monthly for $16.97 per year, $28.97 for two years, or $36.97 for three years. APB is published by On the Beat, LLC, 43 Thorndike St., 2nd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02141. Periodicals Postage Paid at Boston, MA and Ad- ditional Mailing Offi ces. POSTMASTER: send address changes to American Police Beat, 43 Thorndike St., Floor 2, Cambridge, MA 02141. Chicago Police offi cers are seen on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago after the school received a report of a possible gunshot near the Student Services Building. An initial search did not turn up any evidence. Someone call Guinness – we may have a world record here. A 29-year-old West Point graduate and former mortgage banker is the new commander of the Illinois State Police. Jonathen Monken told reporters he was surprised when Gov. Pat Quinn asked him to take over as Illinois State Police director. A U.S. Army Captain, Monken was named to the post, where he takes over from former director Larry Trent. Mr. Trent recently re- signed abruptly. Monken said he hopes to quickly win over older offi cers who obvi- ously have a lot more experience. But he's not worried, he says, be- cause he's a "good listener and a quick study." Monken served as a platoon leader in Kosovo and Iraq. He also worked for a Chicago bank for about a year before becoming a recruiter for the Illinois Army National Guard. Aren't you a little young? A ccording to a recent article in the Legal Times, a fed- eral judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by naval police offi cers who wanted to stop the Navy from blasting recruits' eyes with pepper spray during their training. The offi cers' lawyers argued that the practice of subjecting trainees to a direct shot of pepper spray was dangerous and deprived them of their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. The lawyers argued that the Navy could rely on less intense training methods, such as smearing a small amount of the spray on the skin be- neath the eyes, or forcing trainees to walk through a room that had been pepper-sprayed. But Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the court was not in a position to overrule the Navy's decision-making authority because the offi cers failed to show that the department had acted arbi- trarily and capriciously in develop- ing training protocols. "The use of direct-impact pepper spray indisputably risks injury, but the agency decided that this risk was offset by the benefi ts of training," Leon wrote. "The plaintiffs' allegation that the action was 'clearly not the product of reasoned thought,' is little more than a legal conclusion and provides insuffi cient support for its claim that the agency decision was arbitrary and capricious," the Judge noted. Judge tells Naval cops they must be sprayed Bid to alter training fails