For 14 years, Lt. Bill Schwartz was the face of the Miami Police Department.

As one of the most outspoken public information officers in the country, Schwartz left a lasting impact in South Florida.

Then, after retiring from the force in 2008, his life took a dramatic turn. For the past three years, Schwartz has been starring in a new role – as a nude model.

“After leaving the police department I was in a show where I had a nude scene, and the show and even my performance got mediocre reviews, but my body got raves,” said Schwartz, 60.

Now he travels to art classes around South Florida a few times a week.

“I find this is a real privilege because I’m in a partnership with the artist to create something special, and nothing gives me a bigger thrill than to walk around during a break and see just how beautiful their work is,” Schwartz said.

Jan Johnson, an art professor at Broward College, said Schwartz is a natural at nude modeling.

“He immediately knows what I’m talking about when I say I need a certain type of pose,” she said.

Johnson teaches her students to capture the proportion, scale and energy of the model.

“Bill’s interesting because he’ll strike some interesting poses, I guess,” said Michael Valverde, a student at Broward College.

As a lieutenant, Schwartz was a tough, compassionate and sincere character, but it wasn’t until he started doing his current body of work that he realized how confident he is in his own skin.

“In theatre we always talk about being in the moment on stage. It’s very difficult, because in life being in the moment is very difficult. And I think that this job has helped me learn how to be in the moment,” he said.

It’s a moment some of his former colleagues get a good laugh out of – but also respect him for.

“I’ve always wanted to recreate myself from the time I was young, do different things, never repeat myself much, and I think the police department was great because there was a lot of variety there and I loved it, it was a great career,” Schwartz said. “Acting is great in that way – you play different roles. And this has been great. I guess I can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen next.”

LONDON -- British authorities ordered more police on the streets for Sunday's London Marathon in the wake of the Boston bombings, but experts warned it was "virtually impossible" to guarantee the safety of the hundreds of thousands who will attend the event. 

A police source said additional patrols by uniformed officers were planned to reassure the public in the wake of deadly attack.

While British security officials have been in contact with their counterparts in the U.S. following Monday's blasts, the U.K.'s threat level for international terrorism hasn't been changed from "substantial" -- the third of five categories on the scale.

At least 500,000 spectators are expected to watch Sunday’s race and Prince Harry is due to hand medals to the winners.

The course takes the 36,000 runners right past major sites - including Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace – as well as through Canary Wharf, the giant riverside financial district targeted twice by the Irish militants in the 1990s.

Even in a city that has spent recent decades under the threat of bombs – first from Irish Republicans, more recently jihadists – such a public event poses a security headache.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, said that the force was "taking more more precautions than we might have done otherwise."

"We will make sure we've got more officers on the street looking after people, making sure they're kept safe, but we've no reason to think they'd be any less safe than before the terrible events in Boston,." he said. "We'd be professionally irresponsible if we didn't take some reasonable steps."

Sang Tan / AP

Backdropped by Buckingham Palace, a jogger crosses the Mall in London on Tuesday. It will be transformed into the finishing area for Sunday's London Marathon.

Metropolitan Police Commander Christine Jones declined to give details of what changes might be made, if any, to the event's security plan. She said officers would “continue to review all the intelligence” available.

London Marathon chief executive Nick Bitel insisted the event would go ahead. “We will be reviewing our security in the coming days, in the light of what has happened in Boston," Bitel told ITV News.

"I don't want to talk about specifics of what security we have had in the past, or will have on Sunday. All I can say is that it will be of an appropriate level to meet whatever threat assessment is made, in conjunction with the police," he added.

Hugh Robertson, a British government minister, called for crowds and runners to attend in London as normal.

“The very best way to show solidarity with Boston is to get out there on the streets of London to cheer the runners on and to show that we won’t be defeated by this sort of activity,” he told the London Evening Standard newspaper.

Runners will be encouraged to wear a black ribbon at the start of the race to honor victims of the Boston bombing, and a 30-second silence will be observed, organizers said Wednesday. 

NBC News national security analyst Michael Leiter said it was “virtually impossible” to make a marathon completely secure because of its 26.2-mile long route.

“You just have to do the best you can to keep people safe and maintain resilience," he said. “It’s important we don’t alter our lives because that provides the terrorist – domestic, international, whoever it may be – with a huge victory.”

Helmut Spahn, executive director of the International Centre for Sport Security, told Reuters: "There has to be a clear analysis of the situation and certainly no over-reaction. More police, more military is not always the best solution. To have a 100 percent security is very, very difficult if not near impossible.”

Sang Tan / AP

A sign warns of road closures linked to the forthcoming London Marathon.

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:29 AM EDT

WESTBROOK, Conn. -- A state trooper was shot on Monday afternoon in Westbrook, Conn., while trying to apprehend two suspects in a robbery, and one of the suspects is dead, according to state police.

Old Saybrook police were pursuing suspects in an armed robbery and and asked Troop F for help.

During the pursuit, a state trooper's cruiser and vehicle the suspected robbers were in collided on Route 153 in the area of Docs Hill on the Essex, Westbrook line, police said.

The trooper exchanged gunfire with the suspects and was shot while trying to take the two men into custody.

The chase began with Old Saybrook police near a Days Inn at 1430 Boston Post Road in Old Saybrook just before 3 p.m., according to a witness. The suspects checked into a room at the Days Inn, the witness said.

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There was also another crime scene located at the Heritage Motor Inn, 1500 Boston Post Road. The owner of the inn said that the victims of the armed robbery live at the hotel. Police would not confirm this information.

The trooper suffered severe injuries, though the injuries were described as non-life-threatening, according to state police.

Officials said he was alert and conscious and taken to the Shoreline Medical Center in Essex by another state trooper.

Route 153 was closed in the area for hours.

Lifestar, a helicopter rescue service, sent one aircraft to the medical center and left with one of the injured suspects onboard, according to state police. The suspect was taken to Hartford Hospital, police said.

NBCConnecticut.com

Authorities have a video from a police interrogation room that shows a murder suspect shooting a detective to death before killing himself with the officer's gun, a person with knowledge of the investigation said Saturday.

The suspect, Jeremy Powell, was not handcuffed during questioning at the Jackson Police Department on Thursday, the person said on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the ongoing investigation.

Powell overpowered Det. Eric Smith and took his gun, shooting the veteran detective four times before shooting himself in the head inside a third-floor room of the department's headquarters, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said. Other officers heard the shots ring out and rushed to the interview room, but both men were dead.

The AP has asked for the video to be released under open records laws, but authorities have not responded to the request.

Powell, 23, was being questioned about the stabbing death of a man whose body was found Monday near a Jackson street.

Ken Winter, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police, said it's not unusual for a suspect to be unrestrained during questioning.

"It depends on the demeanor of the individual at the time. I would assume that the detective had no reason to believe this guy was aggressive or he wouldn't have been interviewing him in the first place," said Winter, who spent 36 years in law enforcement as a police chief, a detective and as director of the state crime lab.

Winter also said it's not uncommon for an officer to be armed during an interrogation.

"I don't think this detective was doing anything out of the ordinary. Sometimes you can do everything right and it still turn out bad," Winter said.

Smith, 40, is survived by his wife, Eneke, a sergeant with the Jackson Police Department, and two sons.

Related:

• Suspect shot officer, then himself, investigators say
• Miss. cop, suspect shot, killed inside police HQ
• Investigators: Miss. suspect used detective's gun

David Seastrand, 50, police chief of New London, near the state capital Concord, quit his job effective immediately under a deal with the office of state Attorney General Michael Delaney, prosecutors said.

Seastrand, who had been chief since 1995, also agreed to permanently give up his police officer's certification.

No charges will be brought against him in connection with the case, Associate Attorney General Jane Young told Reuters.

A call to an attorney for Seastrand was not immediately returned.

Delaney's office opened an investigation last month after the young woman accused Seastrand of telling her the charges would be dropped if she agreed to let him shoot nude photos of her.

The unnamed woman, a student at the private Colby-Sawyer College in New London, had been arrested on suspicion of underage drinking and giving a false name, according to her lawyer, Richard Lehmann.

Lehmann said the student would have liked to see Seastrand criminally prosecuted but respects the prosecutors' decision.

He said the "relatively minor charges" still stand.

"The ability for him to leave office and never be a police officer again was a very significant consideration," Young said.

A man who admitted faking his own drowning at a New York beach pleaded not guilty on new charges that he posed as a police officer and has been placed on suicide watch, his lawyer said Thursday.

Raymond Roth tried to "hurt himself" in custody and his family considered having him committed before he was arrested again for impersonating a police officer, Roth's lawyer, Brian Davis, said.

Roth last week admitted faking his death at Jones Beach in exchange for a 90-day jail sentence, but had not started serving that time when he allegedly impersonated a cop just hours after appearing in court.

That plea deal could be in jeopardy and Roth could now face as many as four years in jail for faking his own death to collect an insurance policy.

In this latest case, he faces more than 20 years in prison on attempted kidnapping, attempted burglary and criminal impersonation charges. He pleaded not guilty and is due back in court on April 24.

Roth is accused of following a woman in van in a Freeport, saying "Get in the van or I will arrest you. I am a police officer," according to court papers.

Surveillance video released by investigators allegedly shows a man following a woman into a check-cashing store. According to police, after the woman went to a back office area, the man tried to convince her to come out by claiming to be a cop.

"Open the door." Roth allegedly said, according to court papers. "I'm the police. Open the door, I'm a detective in the county."

Read more news from NBCNewYork.com

He did not show a badge or phony identification, one police official said, but, according to court papers, patted his waist to create the impression he had a gun.

Authorities said they also are investigating his connection to two other similar impersonation incidents in Freeport.

Last July, Roth's son told authorities that his father went for a swim at Jones Beach and never came back. After the fruitless search, Roth turned up in Florida and South Carolina.

Prosecutors said father and son had conspired to collect on about $400,000 in life insurance.

Davis has said his client pleaded guilty to ensure his son won't go to jail. The case against his 22-year-old son is pending.

Alan Diaz / AP file

Miami-Dade narcotics detector canine Franky, who came out of retirement to give a demonstration, sniffs for marijuana in Miami on Dec. 6, 2011.

The use of a drug-sniffing dog by police outside of a home where they suspected drugs were being grown constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court said in a decision handed down Tuesday.

The case, Florida v. Jardines, dealt with whether police could use trained canines to investigate the immediate surroundings of a home for drugs they suspected were being grown inside, but could not see.

Officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department approached Joelis Jardines’ home with a drug dog in 2006 after receiving a tip that marijuana was being grown in the house. The animal alerted officers to the presence of marijuana in the house, after which officers obtained a search warrant and discovered the plants.

The justices affirmed the Supreme Court of Florida’s decision to suppress the evidence by a 5-4 vote. Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the court’s opinion.

“To find a visitor knocking on the door is routine (even if sometimes unwelcome); to spot that same visitor exploring the front path with a metal detector, or marching his bloodhound into the garden before saying hello and asking permission, would inspire most of us to – well, call the police,” Scalia wrote.

This is the second of two police dog cases the court has delivered opinions on this term, both originating in Florida. In a February decision in the other case, Florida v. Harris, the court ruled that an alert by a trained police dog gave police officers probable cause to further search a vehicle.

Related:

• Will police dogs pass Supreme Court sniff test?

WNBC

Mourners gathered at a Brooklyn church Saturday for the funeral of Kimani Gray, a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed by police.

The teen's funeral was being held at St. Catherine of Genoa Roman Catholic Church, not far from where the teen was killed.

Gray was shot by two officers in the neighborhood of East Flatbush on March 9 after police said he pulled a gun on them. But the teen's family has been demanding an independent investigation into the shooting, arguing that no witnesses saw Gray pull out a gun.

The shooting set off a series of protests in East Flatbush last week.

The New York Daily News reports the two officers involved in the shooting have been sued in the past for alleged civil rights violations. They are on desk duty while the NYPD and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office investigates.

The teen was with a group of people the night of March 9, but left when he saw police in an unmarked car, police said. Authorities said he was acting suspicious when plainclothes officers approached him.

Read more on NBCNewYork.com

According to police, Gray pointed a .38-caliber revolver at them, and they opened fire. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

A gun was recovered at the scene, according to police.

The medical examiner's office ruled that Gray was hit seven times, and had wounds in both the front and back of his body, including his shoulder, rib cage, forearm and legs.

Gray was black. The officers involved in the shooting were black and Hispanic.

A police officer may use deadly force when the officer has a reasonable fear of serious injury or death. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the shooting appeared to be within those guidelines.

But supporters of Gray maintain he wasn't armed. His mother has said she also believes he was not, and said he left the house Saturday afternoon like it was any other weekend, heading out to hang with friends.

Hundreds turned out at a wake Friday for Gray. A woman attending the wake at Caribe Funeral Home described the service as "very emotional."

"I can't sit in there for too long without crying," said Fatimah Shakur of Bedford-Stuyvesant. "Someone has to bury their child."

NBCNewYork.com