Police Drones Are Starting to Think for Themselves

Cade Metz

December 05, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chula Vista, California

The first Drone as First Responder program in the U.S. expands the use of drone aircraft by the police, sending the aircraft on emergency calls without direct oversight by a human pilot. Using technology similar to self-driving cars, the drones deploy long-distance cameras and other sensors to observe things more quickly, safely, or efficiently than through traditional means. As more police departments adopt the equipment and tactic, privacy advocates warn of surveillance excesses that could harm over-policed populations.

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Illegal Out-of-State Gun Trafficking is Fueling Baltimore's Homicide Epidemic

Ron Cassie

December 01, 2020 |

Baltimore Magazine |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

When Baltimore police shifted tactics starting in 2007, away from aggressive street stops aimed at arresting gun carriers toward regulating the supply of street guns at their sources, the city's murder rate plunged. Backed by studies on effective gun regulations, the focus on tracing crime guns to their sources, firearms traffickers and corrupt gun retailers, often in states with lax laws on gun sales, seemed to have significant positive effects. That strategy was largely abandoned and an emphasis on street enforcement resumed. Baltimore's homicides went back up.

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An oft-tried plan to curb violent crime in Baltimore resurfaces. City leaders say better leadership will bring better results.

Tim Prudente

December 01, 2020 |

The Baltimore Sun |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

In the 1990s and again in 2014, when Baltimore used a strategy called focused deterrence to reduce street violence, it showed initial promise but then failed. Those failures can be tied to how the program was managed, and to changes in leadership, not to the approach itself. The strategy offers help to people at risk of shooting others or being shot, but threatens them with prosecution if they reject the help and commit violence. The revived Group Violence Reduction Strategy has worked well in many cities, including New Orleans, where Baltimore's current police chief came from.

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How the Criminal Justice System Fails People With Mental Illness

Jordan Smith

November 26, 2020 |

The Intercept |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tyler, Texas

Crisis-intervention and de-escalation trainings for police were meant to reform the criminal justice system's handling of people suffering from mental illness. But a lack of rigorous standards in the training and use of these approaches means that they routinely fail as a means of diverting people from arrest and incarceration toward treatment. That failure, combined with a lack of adequate mental-health-care resources, maintains jails' and prisons' role as the nation's de facto mental health care hospitals, even though they lack the will and the means to help people heal.

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New Orleans actively releases videos of police shootings. Is it paying off with trust?

Christiaan Mader

November 23, 2020 |

The Current (Louisiana) |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

Once viewed as one of the nation's most brutal and corrupt police departments, New Orleans Police Department has earned steadily improving public support with a host of reforms. One reform that it took voluntarily, and in contrast with common practice in Louisiana, is to quickly release body-camera videos of police shootings and other uses of force. Though its effect is hard to untangle from other initiatives, video releases have become routine. In one case, a video prompted an official apology after proving rubber bullets were used against protesters. This helped lead to new restrictions on crowd control.

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Stopped: Profiling the Police Town Hall

Nick Haines

November 19, 2020 |

KCPT |

Broadcast TV News |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

Missouri requires police to record the race of drivers from every traffic stop, a response meant to expose and ultimately reduce racial profiling in law enforcement. But, 20 years after that law took effect, Black drivers are 95% more likely to be stopped by police than white drivers, the biggest gap since the state started collecting the data. The policy was rendered meaningless because the data are collected inconsistently, high rates of noncompliance with the policy go unpunished, and individual officers' records go uncounted. As a result, there's no accountability for racist traffic enforcement.

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A Watchdog Accused Officers of Serious Misconduct. Few Were Punished.

Blacki Migliozzi Ashley Southall Ali Watkins

November 15, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

New York City established its Civilian Complaint Review board in 1993 to strengthen its police-discipline system, a response to complaints that police officers rarely were punished for harassment and brutality, especially in Black and brown neighborhoods. In 6,900 cases in which the board recommended the toughest punishment, however, police officials overruled it more than 70% of the time over the past two decades. The result is a disciplinary mechanism designed to instill trust but that instead "has become all but toothless" because of how it is structured and how police leaders responded to oversight.

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Denver police solved less than half of all nonfatal shootings last year. A new solution is showing promise.

Elise Schmelzer

November 13, 2020 |

The Denver Post |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

By creating a centralized team of detectives to focus on non-fatal shootings, Denver police improved their rate of solving such crimes from 39% in 2019 to 65% in the program's first seven months. The team of six detectives, hired for their talent at winning the trust of victims who might be reluctant to cooperate with the police, treats such shootings with all the seriousness of a homicide investigation, on the theory that solving these crimes will prevent more shootings. The boost in the so-called clearance rate, albeit preliminary, comes despite a big increase in shootings in Denver in 2020.

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What happens after the police stop? People of color with disabilities face higher risks

Vicky Diaz-Camacho Catherine Hoffman Cody Boston

November 11, 2020 |

Flatland |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

Crisis intervention training for Kansas City police officers does not reach the majority of the department and can fail to address a critical reason that police might use excessive force on people with disabilities. Although the 40-hour training includes a segment on dealing with people with autism and developmental disabilities, the combination of racial bias and some people's eccentric behavior can cause officers' "compliance culture" to kick in and make them overreact to perceived threats. Training without culture change, advocates say, is doomed to have short-lived effects.

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N.Y.P.D. Will No Longer Force Women to Remove Hijabs for Mug Shots

Alan Feuer

November 09, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Two Muslim women arrested on minor charges and forced to remove their hijabs for mugshots sued the New York Police Department and won a settlement that changes the department's policy. The women said they were humiliated and shamed by having to bare their heads in front of male strangers, which is against their religious teachings. The NYPD agreed to allow religious head coverings in booking photographs under most circumstances. The NYPD had attempted to modify its photo practices in the past, but had not officially changed its main policy manual, which it will do now.

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