Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • 'We're dealing with victims': Ride-along offers glimpse at anguished work of crisis teams

    Rochester's Person In Crisis team, launched in response to the death of Daniel Prude in police custody during a mental health crisis, began a six-month pilot project in January. PIC uses a "co-response model" of crisis intervention, sending social workers alone or with police, as first responders or called in by police at a scene, to connect non-violent people with needed services. PIC teams work 24/7, replacing or supplementing police on calls where help, not arrest, will resolve the problem, and empathetic conversation can work better in places where distrust of the police runs high.

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  • Is new California police deadly force law making a difference?

    More than a year after taking effect, California's law restricting when police can use deadly force has had some effects on police accountability and training, but a number of flaws illustrate how long and difficult the process of change will be. The Act to Save Lives, which limits the use of deadly force to cases when it is needed to defend a life, has been cited by prosecutors in two homicide prosecutions. A number of police departments have followed the law's training dictates. But many others have been slow to roll out the training, and the state is not requiring officers to take it to stay certified.

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  • How Jos Neighbourhood Watch Makes Christians, Muslims Their Brother's Keeper

    Following years of religious-based violence throughout Plateau State, Christians and Muslims in the Dutse Uku area of Jos formed a neighborhood watch program to intervene before one killing turns into many. Elders on both sides of the divided community agreed to take responsibility for violence in their area and to help the other side seek justice. Places of worship are guarded by members of the opposite faith, in a show of solidarity that has not completely erased fears and suspicions, but has bred a calmer atmosphere. People now mingle freely at the marketplace and business has improved.

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  • Program in Oregon provides blueprint for San Diego mental health services

    As San Diego County ramps up its CAHOOTS copycat – a mental health crisis response that sends specialists other than police to non-violent calls, similar to the long-running exemplar in Eugene, Oregon – it's beginning to see positive results: 34 calls since January, with only one needing police. But it probably needs to change how people can ask for its help. The San Diego Mobile Crisis Response Team has a phone number separate from the 911 system. Eugene's police chief says calls to 911 in Eugene offer help from police, fire, or CAHOOTS, a persistent and explicit reminder to the public of the alternative.

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  • Would better policing reduce gun violence in Philly like it has in Camden?

    For a city like Philadelphia, with rising violence and a lack of community trust in the police, Camden and Newark serve as examples of the positive changes that come about when outside forces impose the kinds of reforms that the community seeks. After significant makeovers, both cities' police departments have earned greater trust by being more effective and less brutal. Crime is down and police use less force, including not a single police shooting in Newark in 2020. The lesson in both cities: community involvement in crime reduction is key, but better policing also must be a part of the response.

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  • Failure to Thrive: NYC's $100 Million ‘Diversion Centers' for Mentally Ill Sit Empty or Barely Used

    Despite committing hundreds of millions of dollars to programs that make New York City's emergency response to mental health crises less punitive, a pattern of over-promising and under-delivering, plus pandemic snarls, kept the programs from getting off to an effective start. Two "diversion centers" where police could bring people in crisis, as alternatives to jail or hospital emergency rooms, either sit empty or have served only a tiny number of people. A program to send counselors with police on calls never got off the ground. In its place is a non-policing team that is having trouble recruiting EMTs.

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  • These tenants are organizing to restore safety in their Nanaimo complex

    Residents at a subsidized nonprofit family housing complex organized to address safety and drug-use issues that began with the pandemic. Residents use a Facebook chat to communicate and will often warn each other of suspicious activity. They also record every incident in writing, pictures, and video, -- which are shared with the landlord, building manager, the police, and the media – and they maintain a visible presence to ensure visitors know they are seen. As a result, the nonprofit has provided more onsite security and better lighting and two of the four most disruptive tenants at have been evicted.

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  • Can police be taught to stop their own violence?

    When Minneapolis police officers were videotaped standing by or trying ineffectively to intervene in George Floyd's murder by a fellow officer, horrified police departments nationwide rushed to embrace a peer intervention program called ABLE (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement). ABLE is based on a five-year-old program that has helped transform the culture of New Orleans' once-troubled police department, cutting shootings, taser uses, and citizen complaints. Officers are taught how to overcome rank and cultural inhibitors with actions and language that stop brutality by their colleagues.

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  • The Ferguson movement is on the cusp of revolutionizing political power in St. Louis

    Frustrated at the slow pace of criminal justice reform after the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, the grassroots group Action St. Louis formed to seize political power and make change happen from the inside of the system rather than pressuring for change from the outside. After years of organizing and politicking, it flipped key offices – St. Louis city and county prosecutors, the Board of Aldermen, and the mayor – outflanking the police union's candidates with officeholders committed to re-imagining public safety policy.

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  • To Solve 3 Cold Cases, This Small County Got a DNA Crash Course

    Genetic genealogy's use in criminal cases has gone mainstream. As the cases of three murder victims in Indiana illustrate, the science of DNA evidence combined with genealogical research and detective work is rapidly ramping up, from a hobby to a curiosity and now to a major commercial and criminal-justice opportunity. Hundreds of missing persons have been identified from decades-old remains, or murder suspects identified from old biological evidence in cold cases. By creating a family tree of the victim or suspect, investigators can zero in on an identity more quickly and inexpensively than ever.

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