Community groups have consistently failed to improve policing. These advocates are pushing a new way.

Jamie Smith Hopkins Kristine Villanueva

June 11, 2020 |

Mother Jones |

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Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Civilian oversight panels serving as watchdogs and disciplinary enforcers for police departments have a generally poor record of effectiveness, thanks to multiple structural flaws. But examples of successful oversight are multiplying, and thanks to protests of police violence many more cities are working to establish bodies with real power to investigate wrongdoing in specific cases and effect change throughout an agency. One city getting high marks for its program is Denver, where the Office of Independent Monitor succeeded in pressing for new use-of-force rules, which cut incidents by 21% in a year.

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This is how the Police Advisory Commission should work in Philadelphia

Charles D. Ellison

June 10, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Truly independent citizen review boards can serve as an effective check on police misconduct if they are structured properly, but too many cities are like Philadelphia, where a lack of power and resources means they serve mainly as window dressing. The history of the Philadelphia Police Advisory Commission shows how initial efforts by community groups to establish real oversight fizzled through political gamesmanship and limits on the panel’s power to investigate and discipline. More promising models exist in Phoenix, Denver, and St. Louis.

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Thousands of Complaints Do Little to Change Police Ways

Shaila Dewan Serge Kovaleski

May 30, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Derek Chauvin's journey through the Minneapolis Police Department’s officer-disciplinary system illustrates the weaknesses of that system and the failure of efforts to fix it. Chauvin, the officer charged in the death of George Floyd, survived at least 17 misconduct complaints before he was fired for killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck. Critics charge the department never complied with recommendations by federal analysts to improve the tracking and disciplining of problem officers. That and other administrative failures are coupled with political and cultural barriers to neuter many reform ideas.

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Before George Floyd's Death, Minneapolis Police Failed to Adopt Reforms, Remove Bad Officers

Simone Weichselbaum Jamiles Lartey

May 28, 2020 |

The Marshall Project |

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Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Minneapolis Police Department’s repeated failures to reform a broken police-discipline system underscore the lack of public trust that exploded in local and nationwide protests after an officer with a troubled record killed a handcuffed suspect. An analysis of police-reform efforts in the city, and statewide, show how vows to do better have been undermined by official reluctance to remove bad officers from duty, either through administrative or legislative failure. Among the unaddressed problems: a "coaching" system that allows officers to avoid suspension but is riddled with problems.

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Using a Mobile Phone Survey to Investigate South Sudan's Conflict

Carolyn Thompson

May 11, 2020 |

Global Investigative Journalism Network |

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Response Location: South Sudan

To tell the stories of victims of forced displacement, property destruction, and occupation in South Sudan, a team of journalists devised a phone survey to gauge the extent of the problem. By surveying hard-to-reach people in refugee camps, one of many barriers to traditional reporting due to the government's repressive tactics, the reporters pinpointed areas where people had been forced off their land, many by government soldiers. The survey was recorded in six languages and was made statistically valid by consulting outside experts and transparently disclosing its limitations.

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How a Group of Political Novices Ended Gerrymandering in Michigan

Tom Perkins

April 24, 2020 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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Response Location: United States, Michigan

Voters Not Politicians (VPN) is a grassroots initiative that, with the help over 4,000 volunteers who knocked on 125,000 doors and canvassed at public events, collected the 400,000 signatures needed to get an anti-gerrymandering initiative on the statewide ballot. The initiative passed with 61% of the vote in 2018 and requires district boundaries be drawn by average citizens. The group’s founder also started The People, another group to help residents in other states apply VPNs model to stop gerrymandering. So far, residents in Florida, Virginia, and New Hampshire are at various stages of applying the model.

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City watchdog says Chicago's arrest diversion program for youth can't be evaluated due to poor record keeping and lack of collaboration

Annie Sweeney

February 25, 2020 |

Chicago Tribune |

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Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Over the past 14 years, the city of Chicago has been running a Juvenile Intervention and Support Center (JISC) to help divert youth away from the criminal justice system. The goal of the program, which took a $5 million investment, was to connect them with social services, favoring rehabilitation over punitive measures. But because of record destruction, lack of record keeping, and an inability by the police and Department of Family and Support Services to collaborate, a recent audit has proved unable to determine the success of the JISC.

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'You Are Killing Us? We Will Make You a Joke.' Meet Ahmed Albasheer.

Tina Rosenberg

December 26, 2019 |

The New York Times |

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Response Location: United States, New Haven, Connecticut

Ahmed Albasheer is an Iraqi journalist who uses a combination of humor and grassroots organizing to teach youth in Iraq and across the world about their government's corruption with his show, "The Albasheer Show.” He has been compared to Jon Stewart in how his weekly series airing on YouTube and satellite television engages young people through his comedic timing and straight-forward manner of speaking. As a result, protests have erupted, and the government has killed protesters in response, but Albasheer continues to boost morale and amplify their voices in solidarity.

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Explaining 'Citizens Assemblies', a Real Kind of Democracy

Julia Hotz

December 18, 2019 |

Vice |

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Response Location: United Kingdom, Leeds

In the city of Leeds, England, a group of randomly selected demographically representative citizens came together to solve the climate crisis. This group of twenty-one strangers formed the Leeds Climate Citizens' Jury, which is a smaller version of the better-known Citizen's Assembly. Over the course of several weeks, the members of the assembly or jury learn about and discuss how to tackle a certain political problem, like climate change. Similar assemblies have formed in Ireland, Australia, and Poland to tackle political problems like abortion and nuclear storage.

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Collective Reincorporation: The FARC's fading dream

Oliver Gordon

November 27, 2019 |

Struggles from Below Magazine |

Multi-Media |

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Response Location: Colombia, Dabeiba

In an effort to reincorporate former guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Colombian government created Territorial Training and Reincorporation Spaces (ETCRs) to allow partial autonomy for the guerrilla groups. Many of the ETCRs have created successful product businesses - from chicken farms to community gardens - but community members continue to leave, leaving the ETCRs looking to the government for continued support and land rights.

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