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City governments in Kansas didn't launch the tech revolution. But they're embracing it

Stan Finger

February 23, 2021 |

The Kansas Leadership Center Journal (KLC Journal) |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kansas

City websites have embraced technology, allowing residents to pay bills, request permits, and attend council or commission meetings online. The shift, which was accelerated by the pandemic, also made the websites crucial information hubs, informing residents about everything from tax increases to street closings. The shift increased efficiency, for example decreasing in-person visits to City Hall, reporting problems like potholes any time, and officials are fielding fewer calls because information is readily accessible. Conducting business online also led to greater transparency into city business.

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SC law enforcement agencies are supposed to report info on traffic stops, but most are not

Daniel J. Gross

January 28, 2021 |

The Greenville News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, South Carolina

After the South Carolina legislature in 2005 began requiring police to enforce a seat-belt law with traffic stops, it imposed on all police departments a duty to track and report traffic-stop data on drivers' race. The law was meant as a way to prevent biased policing, through public disclosure of disparities. But only about one-third of the state's law enforcement agencies have consistently complied with the law, and some never have. Some blame ignorance of how the system should work. But another explanation is the state has done little or nothing to enforce the law.

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Queens Prosecutors Long Overlooked Misconduct. Can a New D.A. Do Better?

Troy Closson

January 27, 2021 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

On her first day as district attorney of Queens, Melinda Katz created a unit to review potential wrongful convictions that in its first year has exonerated four men and has 80 more cases under review. The Queens DA's office long resisted the national trend toward such "conviction integrity" units, based on its contention that all prosecutors should be open to fixing their mistakes. The office, however, showed little inclination to do so systematically. Katz put the new unit under the control of a former lawyer with the Innocence Project and showed a resolve to take claimed injustices more seriously.

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How 60 reporters from 25 media outlets in 18 countries are finishing the work of murdered journalists

Amaris Castillo

January 25, 2021 |

Poynter |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Mexico

The Cartel Project formed an international team of journalists that produced a five-part series on the murder of Mexican journalist Regina Martinez. The series also explored the subjects that Martinez's killers attempted to silence: particulars about drug trafficking and political corruption. The project was founded on the principle that journalism must be a cross-border collaboration to counter transnational crime syndicates. The series documented the role Mexicans play in the international drug business and in spying on and censoring journalists who seek to reveal these secrets.

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Still Can't Breathe: How NYPD Officers Continue to Use Chokeholds on Civilians

Yoav Gonen Topher Sanders

January 21, 2021 |

The City |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

New York Police Department banned chokeholds in 1993, to prevent unnecessary injury and death. The practice has been scrutinized especially closely since the 2014 death of Eric Garner. But despite hundreds of complaints alleging the forbidden use of chokeholds, no NYPD officer has been fired for using a chokehold since 2014, nor have any complaints yielded more than some lost vacation time as a penalty. The failure of the policy stems from many causes, including ambiguity in the policy and its enforcement and lack of respect for investigative findings of the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

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Where surveillance cameras work but the justice system doesn't

Madeleine Wattenbarger

January 19, 2021 |

Rest of World |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Mexico, Mexico City

Mexico City's 11-year-old video surveillance system, one of the most advanced in the world, was a massive investment in public safety: about $660 million to date to cover the city with more than 30,000 cameras and other devices. Like so much else in Mexico's law enforcement apparatus, it has done little to control crime but instead has become a tool of corruption and official impunity. While the cameras have helped keep tourists and elites safer, the vast majority of crimes go unreported and only a tiny number of police investigations benefit from the surveillance system.

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Newark cops, with reform, didn't fire a single shot in 2020

Tom Moran

January 10, 2021 |

NJ Advance Media |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Newark, New Jersey

In 2020, six years after the Justice Department imposed a series of reforms on the Newark Police Department, Newark police officers have reduced their use of force so much that they didn't fire their guns at all in 2020, nor did the city pay any brutality-lawsuit settlements. Reforms in training, including de-escalation tactics, all backed by supportive leadership and extensive community outreach, turned a "rogue department" of brutality and racism into a more trusted, effective force.

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The scramble to archive Capitol insurrection footage before it disappears

Tanya Basu

January 08, 2021 |

MIT Technology Review |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Several groups are preserving digital content related to the capital insurrection to ensure it is archived in case it gets deleted. A subreddit thread collected thousands of Tweets, Snapchats, and other videos to upload to the cloud, while the Woke Collective ensured the survival of livestreams by publishing them on its own YouTube and Twitch accounts. Efforts to crowdsource the identification of members of the mob include the Instagram account, @homegrownterrorists, and the journalism site, Bellingcat, which invited contributions to a publicly editable Google spreadsheet of links.

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Under Biden, the Justice Department is expected to again police the police

Robert Klemko

December 29, 2020 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, East Haven, Connecticut

After East Haven, Connecticut, police officers were caught harassing residents based on race, the Obama Justice Department took the police department to court and won a consent decree requiring a long list of reforms, in hiring, training, discipline, and use of force. The oversight, rare for a small city, changed the department's culture and won praise from many residents, who now trust the police more. Such federal action waned in the Trump years, but is expected to revive in the Biden administration, though perhaps under a more collaborative, less coercive model.

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A secret settlement hid an officer's misconduct. Outside Maine, it would have been different.

Erin Rhoda

December 09, 2020 |

Bangor Daily News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

A Colorado law enacted in 2016 requires law enforcement officers to disclose their past disciplinary records when seeking a new job at a different agency. By making such disclosures automatic, the law standardizes hiring practices statewide, protects past employers from liability for making the disclosures, and most importantly prevents rogue officers from hopping from one job to the next undetected. Maine has no such requirement., and so some of its agencies might unknowingly hire an officer with a record of misconduct.

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