Policing

A Police Union Contract Puts Taxpayers on the Hook to Defend Officers When the City Won’t

A little-known labor contract provision obligates New Yorkers to help pay officers’ legal bills in lawsuits that city lawyers won’t defend.

  • By Jake Pearson, ProPublica

Why America's Great Crime Decline Is Over

COMMENTARY | Even before the recent mass shootings, violent crime was surging to its highest rate in 30 years. Patrick Sharkey illuminates what's happening.

  • By Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

Maryland Created the Police Officers’ Bill of Rights. Now Lawmakers There Might Repeal It.

Passed in 1974, the statute grants broad workplace protections for officers accused of misconduct and has served as a blueprint for similar laws in more than a dozen other states.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

State Capitols Reckon With Racism in Policing

This anti-racist movement has seeped into state capitols and promises to bring changes to housing, health care access and policing policy in the first full legislative session since widespread protests last year.

  • By Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline

'Systemic Buy-In:' How New Jersey Approaches Police Reform

In New Jersey, comprehensive police reform began by listening to community members, law enforcement agencies and civil rights organizations, Gurbir S. Grewal, the state's attorney general, said during a Route Fifty event.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Domestic Terrorism: A More Urgent Threat, but Weaker Laws

Federal authorities have had more success combating international terrorists than those with a domestic focus, reflecting legal limits on investigations of American political groups.

  • By Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica

Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks in Plain Sight. The Police Weren’t Ready.

Insurrectionists made no effort to hide their intentions, but law enforcement protecting Congress was caught flat-footed.

  • By Isaac Arnsdorf, J. David McSwane, Logan Jaffe and Lydia DePillis, ProPublica

Alaska Requires DNA Be Collected From People Arrested for Violent Crimes. Many Police Have Ignored That.

By failing to collect DNA samples when they arrest people as the law requires, Alaskan law enforcement left the state’s DNA database with crucial gaps, allowing at least one serial rapist to go undetected.

  • By Kyle Hopkins, ProPublica

How Police Can Better Navigate Cultural Differences

COMMENTARY | Tactical communications training can enhance safety and increase officer efficiency as local governments face shrinking budgets and calls to change how police operate.

  • By Steven P. Dinkin

New York Lawmakers Demand NYPD Halt Undercover Sex Trade Stings

A dozen city and state officials also called for the disbandment of vice, the primary division that polices the sex trade; some want investigations into misconduct allegations against the unit, including withholding of evidence.

  • By Joshua Kaplan and Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica

In One State, a Racial Equity Task Force Suggests 100 Ways to Change the Criminal Justice System

North Carolina’s task force released a sweeping report calling for changes in policing and the courts.

  • By Emma Coleman

Instead of Defunding Police, Minneapolis Cuts $8 Million from Department Budget

After the police killing of George Floyd, a majority of the city council vowed to dismantle the police department. They took a much more modest step this week.

  • By Emma Coleman
Featured eBooks
Government Tech & Innovation
Management in City and County Government
The Outlook for State CIOS in 2021

2020 Sees Largest Year-Over-Year Rise in Murder on Record

Preliminary data from this year shows that homicide rates are up in most major cities. The pandemic and social unrest are both possible factors in the rise.

  • By Emma Coleman

States Join Pilot to Investigate Cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People

Federal, state, and tribal agencies will create guidelines for investigations into missing persons and murder cases where Native American or Alaska Native people are involved.

  • By Emma Coleman

Federal Intervention in Police Departments to Return Under Biden

The Biden administration will reinvigorate “pattern and practice” investigations into police departments and correctional facilities, while also looking to more aggressively examine prosecutors.

  • By Emma Coleman

New York City Tests Replacing Police with EMTs for 911 Calls about Mental Health Crises

The city saw a wave of protests this summer calling for major changes in how the police operate. Now it’s the latest city to embrace the use of medical and mental health professionals for certain 911 calls.

  • By Emma Coleman

Looking to Replace Police with Crisis Response Teams? Consider These Lessons Learned from the Military.

COMMENTARY | Many cities are exploring how to cut police funding and replace some law enforcement officers with teams of social workers and other specialists. The shortcomings of teams of social scientists deployed by the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan can provide some valuable insights into the kind of mistakes to avoid.

  • By John Borek

Can Better Data Fix America’s Policing Crisis?

COMMENTARY | As society debates law enforcement reform, far better data is necessary to provide a road map for needed changes.

  • By Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene

Breonna Taylor Killing Spurs Action Against No-Knock Warrants

More than a dozen local jurisdictions have changed their policies.

  • By Lindsey Van Ness, Stateline

Seattle, Portland, and New York Sue Trump Administration Over Labeling as ‘Anarchist Jurisdictions’

The cities said that labeling them “anarchist jurisdictions”—and threatening to withhold federal money— was an “arbitrary and capricious” decision that has no merit and violates the Constitution.

  • By Emma Coleman

In One State, a Battle Over Publicly Naming Disciplined Police Officers

A state appeals court in New Jersey ruled that the attorney general does have the power to compel police departments to disclose the names of police officers who have been disciplined for misconduct.

  • By Emma Coleman