at stake is not just protecting from human pollution, but saving what connects us to the spiritual world. more on the website aljazeera.com. get the latest on all the stories we are following there. any time. aljazeera.com. hour. on "america tonight" - the unlikely fighters in fires. >> i don't think the nation really know how much that they contribute. but when they are saving those, the community does not care whether they are inmates. >> sara hoy joins a crew of inmate firefighters, finding redemption on the front lines of danger also tonight - policing 101. is more training necessary for campus police?

>> having armed police on campuses, who are not as well trained as city police puts everybody in danger correspondent bisi onile-ere takes a deeper look at the latest police controversy after the shooting death of daniel by a campus police officer. well, good evening, thanks for joining us. i'm adam may sitting in for joie chen. a controversial shooting and another man left dead. this shines a light on a different type of police agency. campus police. across the country a number of armed university police officers is on the rise. but they are - their training may not be at par with brothers and sisters in blue. bisi onile-ere has more on what the rise of campus police means for students, and those living in surrounding communities.

>> how's it going man. d.c. police. do you have a licence on you. >> to watch the footage is analogous to watching a black man lynched on a tree and what it's meant to do is strike fear into the hearts of black people. >> reporter: within minutes of being brought over, 43-year-old is shot and killed by university of cincinnati police officer. the officer's body camera catches the final moments. >> you good. >> i'm good. >> reporter: pastor damon lynch, a life-long cincinnati resident saw a once thriving community poverty. >> you lived in this community. >> i pastored a church for 25 years. he helped the city through some

of its darkest times. in 2001, the deadly shooting, an unarmed 19-year-old by a cincinnati police officer lead to three days of rioting. and a city wide conversation about race relations. >> the group i was president of filed a class-action lawsuit profiling. >> with the department of justice, we brought everyone to the table. normally the rank and file are not brought to the table. we want them at the table because they'll be the ones out here enforcing the agreement made. >> the agreement rewrote enforce policies, and empowered a citizen complaint. and refocussed policing on solving community problems. it was a campus police officer from the universe of cincinnati, ray tensing, who shot and killed

dubose, half a mile off campus. 2002 reforms were never extended to u.c. cops. since the shooting college president announced the university would voluntarily sign on to the agreement and restrict campus police officers from patrolling off campus. >> having armed police on campuses who are not as well trained for city police puts everyone in danger. >> reporter: u.c. police officers have been involved in the death of three other black males. >> it's been addressed three times, but it conditions. i'm calling that we disarm police officers. they don't need a police force on campus, that has the power of lethal fours, walking around campus, letta lone patrolling the city streets.

>> many colleges and cities. >> reporter: john sloane studied campus policing for years. there are rules for schools to have police forces. having the police officers interact with students and a part of fabric of policy and life makes sense on many levels. sloane says most campuses created law enforcement during the unrest. late '60s, and '70s. local police were perceived as outsiders who didn't understand the dynamics of the college campus, and the concern was they were overreacting to the behaviour of the students. >> reporter: today campus police forces were the norm across the country. in 2012 two-thirds of u.s. universities used police officers with full arrest

powers, and nearly all were armed, according to the bureau of justice statistics. sloane says campus cops are not always as well trained as city police. recently campus police saw their roles expand. u.c. police started patrolling the off campus area in 2009. responding to high levels of crime against u.c. students. >> do you feel like there's a need for campus police. >> i do feel there's a need for campus police. >> lindsay and toby attend the university of cincinnati. >> i think that the university is so worried about how we are depicted now, you know, everybody used to say this was like a fool in the ghetto, and they were afraid to send kids here because of all the poverty. >> in 2013, ono expanded off

campus patrols and increased the size of the force. >> what is it like for you to be a student on the campus. >> it's been hard because we have to be students and black hails as well. they thing that oh, up don't deserve to be here, you got here because of your skin cancer and race. i have to walk twice as hard to be the true my worth, that i deserve to be here. and off campus this doesn't matter, they'll look at me. >> for me, the police on campus has been a kind win on campus. however, when they are patrolling the outside areas, it's a lot different. >> how does it make you feel. >> it makes me feel like i'm less, and me being a black

student, i can't imagine how the community feels. the community is treated as less than the opportunitied. >> 6% of students apt the university of cincinnati's uptown campus are african american. black. >> do you trust the university of cincinnati police force? >> trust needs to be earnt. after the incident, the right is on the wall that change needs to happen, there needs to be more training to handle members of our community, specifically the african-americans, there needs to be greater training. cincinnati. >> will there be reforms within department. >> there has to be. clearly they are policing not under our authority, but inside our city. they need to bring the standards up to ours.

our cops would not have pulled someone over for a missing front. that's the kind of thing that changed after 2001. >> we wanted to ask president ono about the duties and responsibilities of campus police. >> i'm with al jazeera america, do you have a moment, president. >> he said he would speak to us after a meeting with bokal pastors. at the time the meeting was over, he was gone. what do you think needs to be done to improve community policing, when it comes to the university police department. >> you don't need a police force on campus with deadly force, let alone the city streets, when there are issues with race relations, police are the front line of that. they are the most visual part of a racial incident. we need to stop the rhetoric of one bad cop, one bad apple, one rogue cop. it's a national problem, it's a

systematic problem, and has a lot to do with race. that sentiment echoed on the streets of cincinnati, by the community mourning the death of sam dubose and correspondent bisi onile-ere joins us. good to have you with us on the show. has the university of cincinnati shooting. >> hi, there. i can tell you the university of cincinnati is taking a deep look at the police department and reforms are ahead. since the shooting the school has taken steps to suspend all off campus patrols, and on monday the city council took steps to ban all off campus traffic stops indefinitely, and i'm told that this is an issue that could be taken up for a vote later this queek. -- week. >> how much jurisdiction do they

have outside the limits of those campuses. i know that the university of cincinnati beefed up the police department quite a bit. what is the impacts of that? >> well, the numbers have been very interesting to look at. i'm told that just in the year so far u.c. police officers have issued over 9 hundred citations, more than all of last year, and three times more than 2012. and the majority of those that have been ticketed, they have been african-american, so a lot of questions need to be asked of the school and the police department. especially when it comes to police and race relations. >> so the university announcing more oversight there of the police department. what kind of reforms. do we have an indication of what changes could be in store. >> the president of the university, we saw him in the piece there, he has made it clear that he has no plans to

disband the police department even though suggestions have been made by the prosecutor. he is going to try everything in his efforts to make sure something like this doesn't happen again, if it calls for retraining of police officers. that could be interesting considering how many universities have moved towards armed police officers in the last decade. al jazeera's bisi onile-ere. next - the firefighters arsenal. those jumbo jet airdrops and questions about whether they do much good. and later, walking the line. the prison inmates in california on the front lines. battling wildfires and hot on "america tonight"s website. moon sway - a look at how anything n.a.s.a. took to the moon is now commanding sky high prices at

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[ ♪ ] now our fast-forward to the fires in california that this year alone have spread across 100,000 acres. that's an area roughly double the size of washington d.c. as resources become stressed, california officials are looking towards the sky for help in the form of a fire plane called the dc-10. however, there is skepticism that reinforcements from the sky actually help. "america tonight"s joie chen with more. >> reporter: the historic rim fire began in an unremarkable way. it was august 2013. near california's i don'ts 'em yinnie ---est 'emminy -- yosemite national park.

>> it's close, hopefully the big heavies dump on this. >> those big heavies are the largest firefighting craft in the world. old dc-10 passenger jets converted into firefighters. >> saving homes one at a time >> reporter: help came from 1,000 feet up. we had a look at albur turkey, home base of dc-10s. that plane has to be ready to go in half an hour. >> it could be any one, but it happens to be this. i have a crew preflighted, we are waiting for the phone call. >> how does it change the game for firefighters? >> primarily, this is quantity, this is a magnitude four or more times any other tanker, and, therefore, it gets there with more sooner, and that's a good thing. i never had a commander running a fire tell me that we got there too soon and brought too much.

>> after decades of air drops, some doubt aerial firefighting works. at the university of california berkeley, referencer bill stuart says we should take a closer look at aerial fire-fights, tv friendly cnn drops, to see if they are worth it. >> when things are hot, they are just going to be an updraft of the hot air, it will be hard for light material to get on to the leafs to put out the flames. >> well, in fast-forward to the answered prayers of many firefighters on the ground, help from the dc-10, california officials called on the air tanker for reinforcement to contain the planes. the b.c. 10 ds effective licence may be debated by withparties. fighters on the ground welcome the company coming up,

fighting the wild fires. sara hoy looks at how inmates are making all the difference in the battle with wildfires. form tomorrow - did a new mexico nursing chain put profits ahead of patients. serious questions about the care >> lezley mcspadden. one year after the death of her son michael brown. >> so what do you think when i mention the name darren wilson? what comes to mind? >> the devil, that comes to mind. evil. >> an al jazeera america exclusive interview.

welcome back, it's a dire state of emergency in california. there are at least 20 wildfires blackening the golden state, and a situation is so bad governor brown has declared a state of emergency. the largest of those fires, the rocky fire, burning in northern california scorched 65,000 acres

and is far from being contained. roughly a fourth of california's wild land firefighting force is made up of men and women who volunteer for the dangerous and difficult work. what type of person would volunteer to fight forest fires? sara hoy travelled to the mountains of southern california to find out. >> reporter: fighting wildfires in california - dirty, difficult and dangerous. wild land firefighters are often in knee-deep, rugged and hard-to-reach terrain, from sun up to sun down, in the oppressive heat. they dig what are called fire lights. helping to slow the advance of a voracious wildfire. the men and women work a wildfire in 24 hour shifts. and what are you in for? >> assault with a deadly weapon

and 211. >> reporter: what a 211? >> robbery. >> i'm in for assault with a deadly weapon, with a firearm. >> reporter: you heard it right. the men are firefighting convicts. all charged with low-level felony or less. the state of california has roughly 4,000 volunteer innate firefighters, including some 300 women. stationed at the sites. we were invited to a site in southern california, known here as camps. >> this is the largest camp in the state of california. we have a maximum capacity of 160 inmates. the camp is about an hour east of los angeles, nestled high up in the mountains, an elevation of 500 feet. at first glance a barbed wire fence surrounding the 27 acre property. the only clue that the site houses inmates. >> what would you say is the

there? >> i don't think the nation nose how much they contribute to the conservation programme. when they are saving those homes, the community doesn't care whether they are inmates or free people, they are thankful. >> close to 34-00 wildfires blackened portions of the state. the fire season is still young. on this day smoke from the nearby lake fire burning on the other side of the mountains could be seen and smelt for miles. that fire would go on to scorch more than 30,000 acres. during our visit, a team of exhausted firefighters marched into camp. a crew, weighed down by equipment, wearing distinctive gear was weighed down on the city of fresno. >> my pack weighs anywhere from

60 to 70 pounds. >> reporter: despite the taxing work, he is back for his third season. talk a little about why you wanted to do this? this is a vol ter position, right? -- volunteer position, right? >> yes, it is. it's different. this is my first time being in prison. i'm not - i'm not - not what you call a career criminal, so i wanted to do the best that i communities. >> terrell worked the line for two years. he says he wants to square his debt to society. >> reporter: how dangerous is his work? >> it's a dangerous fire. you don't know - fire will take you. it will kill you, hurt you, do anything it can to you. it's unpredictable. you have to be on your a game. >> it's the job of the firefighting agency to ensure that the inmate is

trained properly. >> straight, smooth. secure. >> secure. >> the volunteers are taught the dos and don't of firefighting. >> what is for, what is one of the four common denominators. >> crashing. >> learning life-saving skills, shelter. >> it's the second song. >> on the fire lines, trust is key. each crew is led by a firefighter. the inmates must learn to trust their captain and one another. >> he's the captain, and you got everyone's lives in your hands. we don't put it on him. we have

eyes. if that fire jumps the line. where will we go. >> we are in the middle of the night in the dark. we don't know where the fire is. i don't go to a gir with -- fire with just anyone. >> reporter: the high level of trusts helped to blur the line. it exists with inmates behind prison walls. >> camp commander has worked in corrections for 32 years. >> behind the wall it's required that the inmates segregate themselves. when you come to camp, you have to leave that at the gate. so we have the crews that are integrated, you know. they are diverse, and their lives depend on one another. >> even in fire camp there are some politics, but our crew, when we leave this yard, we are a team. it doesn't matter what colour you are, all the guys here are my brothers, and i'll do what i need to do to make sure they get to go home to their families.

>> we are not supposed to play with other races or associate with other races. >> they are unspoken rules. >> yes. here we can. because we have to. >> reporter: the camaraderie among the crews in stilled a sense of pride and self-worth. >> i save people's houses. the last one that i did, a young woman and her daughter were headed down the road, and a telephone pole came down, starting a fire engine in the back of her house. there was no fire engines resist, we hurried there. we literally put it over that garden hose. they got to go home. >> it's given them esteem and purpose, giving them hope. >> reporter: hope that can make a difference when then get out of prison. >> they are getting rehabilitate. they are going back out to the

community with the skill and the likely. not often. >> when the crews are not working a wildfire, they work on other projects, like fire fuelled production and tree toppling. skills that are useful in the outside world. >> here it taught me how to work, how to sharpen chains, how to do knots. how to do a bunch of things i didn't know how to do before i got here. >> the gruelling yet rewarding experience helped inmates like terrell change course. >> the life i was living, i want do go back to living that life. >> there's nothing there. you have to be back in here or dead. it's not the type of life i want to live. >> they are human being, everybody of the deserves a second chance. >> a chance to save not only the nation's forests, but possibly

their own futures certainly a need for the help in california right now. that's it for us here at "america tonight". be sure to tell us what you think at aljazeera.com/"america tonight". i can talk to us on twitter or facebook and besure to come back, we'll have more of "america tonight"

two passenger trains derail in central india kill being 27 people. you are watching al jazeera. coming up in the program, pro government forces in yemin say they -- yemen say they have recaptured three rebel. what we know will affect the lives of our children and grandchildren in israel, america, everywhere. >> israel's prime