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How a City Once Consumed by Civil Unrest Has Kept Protests Peaceful

Tracey Tully Kevin Armstrong

June 01, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Newark, New Jersey

Through a combination of protesters’ vigilance, mayoral leadership, anti-violence interventions, and de-escalation by police, Newark managed to avoid the violence that marred other cities’ responses in the initial burst of protest after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd. Newark has worked in recent years to reduce street violence using trained mediators. That team, aided by a resolve among protesters to prevent widespread looting and vandalism, helped prevent all but minor problems and arrests in the first volatile weekend of protests.

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Why So Many Police Are Handling the Protests Wrong

Jamiles Lartey Maggie Koerth

June 01, 2020 |

The Marshall Project |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Half a century of research showing the dynamics of how protesters and police interact under pressure teaches that when police respond with escalating force, it doesn’t work. But police continue to lean on such tactics out of instinct and culture, even in the face of strong evidence that they often instigate the very riots they ostensibly seek to prevent. Defusing tension is no simple matter, and officer safety concerns are often legitimate. But much can be learned from common mistakes and from some model strategies that have been deployed successfully.

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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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1500-3000 Words

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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Arrests decrease under diversion program

Ryan Lowery

May 28, 2020 |

Las Vegas Optic |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Alamosa, Colorado

Alamosa, Colorado has lowered its jail population and the number of felony cases and arrests, and has broken the cycle of repeat offending, by diverting people with drug problems from prosecution into treatment. The local version of a national program called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) was modeled on one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which worked best when people in the program maintained a close relationship with their case workers. One of many problems those relationships solved: the high number of missed court dates, which result in arrest warrants.

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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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1500-3000 Words

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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How police forces in western Canada are working to speed up ballistic imaging to solve gun crimes quicker

Marsha McLeod

May 27, 2020 |

The Globe and Mail |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Canada, Edmonton, Alberta

As Canada sees an increase in gun violence, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are increasing their capacity to do ballistic imaging – an analysis that is able to potentially connect multiple crimes. Across the country, individual police agencies are developing their own way of conducting this analysis or working with the RCMP, which has access to an integrated network of crime information, to expedite the process.

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As more Mass. first responders test positive for COVID-19, police and fire departments lean on each other to maintain services

Scott J. Croteau

March 26, 2020 |

MassLive |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Massachusetts

As communities work to contain the coronavirus outbreak, the risk for emergency responders to contract the illness is high; but in Massachusetts, departments are putting new practices and plans into place to address this. From changing the way police respond to calls, to creating a backfill system if or when officers are quarantined, the departments are working to keep both their responders and their communities healthy.

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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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This strategy helped stop murders, prosecutors say. But Kansas City police killed it

Glenn E. Rice Luke Nozicka

January 19, 2020 |

The Kansas City Star |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

Within a year of its creation, a state-federal collaboration to reduce gun violence in Kansas City seemed to result in a deep decline in killings. But the program, called Kansas City No Violence Alliance, collapsed by 2019 after police pulled their support. The program's approach, called focused deterrence, has been proven effective in multiple studies in other cities. But an analysis of the program in Kansas City found multiple failures in consistently getting targeted people to attend call-ins, where they are threatened with arrest if they commit violence but offered social services to choose another path.

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Minneapolis Activists Ask Local Leaders to Invest in Communities, Not Cops

Isabella Garcia

January 09, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, a coalition of organizers and community members called Reclaim the Block advocates for divestment from the city's police force and into more community-based initiatives and services. Advocates for the group argue that rather than solving issues like homelessness, opioid addiction, and mental health crises, policing can actually make the situation worse off. The broad coalition successfully petitioned the city to move funds out of the police force and into the newly created Office of Violence Prevention.

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