July 9, 2010 (San Diego) – East County Magazine added another award to its growing list of honors last night at the Society of Professional Journalists awards banquet at the Bali Hai restaurant in San Diego. SPJ-San Diego presented ECM with a first-place award for investigative reporting in the daily news reporting category.

The winning story, “Sonic weapons used in Iraq positioned at Congressional town hall meetings in San Diego County,” by ECM editor Miriam Raftery, revealed that San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore’s office had been rolling out a long-range acoustical device (LRAD) at public events ranging from a sand-castle building contest to Congressional town hall meetings on healthcare reform. (Read the award-winning story.)

Is the LRAD disabled, or not?

By Miriam Raftery

January 28, 2010 (San Diego) San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore drew sharp criticism from the public and his three political opponents following an article we published last fall, revealing that his office purchased a long-range acoustic device (LRAD) and rolled it out at Congressional healthcare forums and other events.  The Sheriff’s office held a press conference in September to announce that the sonic weapons feature had been “disabled.”

Now the Sheriff has removed a press release discussing the disabling of the sonic weapons feature from the homepage and from the archives at his website. We contacted the Sheriff’s spokeperson, Jan Caldwell, to ask why the release was removed and whether the sonic weapons feature has been reenabled.

 
Tent city jails, sonic weapons, border crimes, Las Colinas prison expansion, and cuts in deputy staffing among hottest issues
 
By Miriam Raftery
Photos by Leon Thompson
 
September 15, 2009 (El Cajon) – Four candidates vying to be the top lawman in San Diego County faced off outside El Cajon's civic center on Sept. 12, dueling verbally over who is the strongest leader to protect our region from crime. The candidates also differed sharply on issues isuch as immigration enforcement, budget priorities,  prison overcrowding, concealed weapons, use of sonic weapons, and deputy staffing cuts.
 
East County Magazine Editor Miriam Raftery and KCBQ radio host Rick Amato co-moderated the debate, which drew raucous responses from the crowd.

 
By Miriam Raftery

September 16, 2009 (San Diego) – San Diego County Sheriff’s Department notified media today that it would hold a demonstration of its highly controversial “sonic weapon.” What was demonstrated, however, was only the loudspeaker capability of the device—a feature which has effectively been used in search-and-rescue operations and to broadcast messages during a sandcastle contest. The sonic weapons switch, capable of emitting tones loud enough to damage ear drums or worse, has now been “disabled,” Sheriff’s Lieutenant Ed Musgrove informed the media at the end of the event. (View our video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulkl5Lw5gm8) But concerns remain.
 
“If you accidentally flip that switch and someone is within a 30-foot range, they can have their eardrums burst, bleeding in the inner ear, and it can result in an aneurysm or death,” reporter Kim Dvorac from Examiner.com said in an interview on KCBQ radio’s Rick Amato show last night , citing a source in the Department of Defense http://www.amatotalk.com/podcasts/AMATO-09-15-09-HR1.mp3 .

A Joint Investigative Report by East County Magazine and Liberty One Radio

By Miriam Raftery
 
September 11, 2009 (San Diego) – “Long-range acoustic devices [LRADs] for crowd control can be extremely dangerous. These are used in Iraq to control insurgents. They can cause serious and lasting harm to humans…We want to know WHY our Sheriff Dept has this weapon,” Sal Magallanez of San Diego-based Liberty One Radio said in an e-mail sent to East County Magazine, prompting a joint investigation.
 
The device was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego). The Davis Rally drew an estimated 1,300-1,500 people, including vocal conservative and liberal protest groups. (photo credit: Mike Russell)