In this issue: Around The Nation: A coast-to-coast roundup of police news. People & Places: Out of uniform; happy campers; within & without; back in the saddle; no excuses; comings & goings. Going up? Surveys agree to disagree on latest direction in crime. A more favorable profile: NJ calls for profiling summit, new policing institute. Blue-ribbon findings: Ideas for improving the Providence police. Buckling down: Boosting seat-belt use, especially among blacks. The beat goes on: Across America, new developments on the racial profiling beat. Two fields to tend: A sitting police chief is called on to monitor another department. Out of steam? The militia movement is seen as a shell of its former self. De-specializing: Community policing spells an end to public housing outreach units. Forum: Don’t rush to judge police actions; the re-education of anti-truancy efforts. Criminal Justice Library: Smoke & mirrors in policing. Hurting the one you love: Intimates are more injurious than strangers. Under a new microscope: Stepping up the scrutiny of the FBI. Aftercare, not an afterthought: Rethinking juvenile justice. A blind eye: London police ease enforcement of pot possession. --top--

People & Places Out of uniform       In uniform, Ginger Harrison is just another Los Angeles police officer; unclothed, she’s The Arresting Officer Ginger, the subject of a six-page nude pictorial in Playboy that landed on newsstands this month, and in the process landed the 28-year-old in hot water with the department.       Harrison, assigned to the Foothills Division, is the first LAPD officer to appear in the magazine. Her photo spread in the July issue has not won her any kudos from the agency’s brass, however. Chief Bernard C. Parks said that female officers in particular were angry about the layout. The department, he told The Daily News of Los Angeles, has received a number of calls, e-mails and letters, most of them negative, about Harrison’s conduct... --top-- Happy campers       The community might not be happy, but Suffolk, Va., police officers this month said they are thrilled that Chief Jimmy L. Wilson has decided to resign from the post he has held since 1997.       Wilson’s departure, said John W. King, president of the Suffolk officers’ association, was “like a breath of fresh air to us. It’s like we had a booster shot at work this morning. I went in to work and everyone’s smiling. Spirits are high.”.. --top-- Within & without       Despite a largely symbolic motion by the Fresno, Calif., City Council this month asking officials to conduct a broader search for a new police chief, City Manager Dan Hobbs said he planned to follow through on his plan and select Ed Winchester’s replacement from within the agency.       Hobbes announced on June 18 that Jerry Dyer, the department’s assistant chief, was the only person among the nine potential candidates to formally apply for the job as of the Friday, June 15, deadline... --top-- Back in the saddle       Having been lured back to law enforcement once after retirement, it appears that policing continues to have a hold on Jim Davis, who was appointed this month as chief of the Sebastian, Fla., Police Department.       Davis, 63, retired as the Beverly Hills, Mich., Director of Public Safety in 1990 after 32 in law enforcement there. He and his wife, Kathleen, soon moved to Florida, where the City Manager of Indian River Shores, Joe Dorsky, approached Davis about creating a public safety division that would incorporate fire, police and ambulance into a single cohesive unit... --top-- No excuses       Ashley, N.D., officials were unsympathetic to Police Chief Chad Madsen’s explanation last month that he could not leave a prom party where underage drinking was taking place because he could not get a ride home.       Madsen, who has been chief since September, was asked to resign by Mayor Myron Schlepp on May 30... --top-- Now you see them, now you don’t       Problems with City Hall, problems with the police union, or problems with both, led to the departure of a number of chiefs this month.       ¶ Among the casualties were Joe Sebenick, chief of the East Ridge, Tenn., Police Department, who was dismissed on June 1. According to City Manager Jim McAlister, Sebenick failed to meet with him to resolve problems concerning police personnel. Sebenick, however, claims that political influence was used by individuals within the department to oust him... --top--