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 |

Text |

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 |

Text |

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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Where Housing, Not Jails, Is the Answer to Homelessness

Sarah McClure

November 09, 2020 |

70 Million |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

Even while Los Angeles police criminalize homelessness with "sweeps" to clear encampments from public property, state and local programs have helped thousands of people find housing and receive services like counseling and criminal record expungement. Programs like LA DOOR and Project Roomkey use public-health and housing-first approaches to address people's underlying problems rather than subject them to endless cycles of arrest and incarceration, all of which cost far more than the helpful strategies while remaining far less effective. Street outreach is done without police escorts, to build trust.

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Los Angeles voters just delivered a huge win for the defund the police movement

Roge Karma

November 04, 2020 |

Vox |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles County, California

By framing their police-reform proposal as an investment in community services rather than a bid to take money away from policing, the Re-Imagine L.A. County coalition of racial and criminal justice advocacy groups won voter approval for what could be the most significant realignment of public safety spending since the 2020 policing protests began. Los Angeles County voters approved Measure J, which mandates that the county allocate 10% of its $8.8 billion discretionary local budget to "direct community investment," and not to law enforcement. The Sheriff's Department accounts for $2 billion of that budget.

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Philly police rebuffed offers from crisis response center to work together, director says

Michaela Winberg Max Marin

October 29, 2020 |

Billy Penn |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Since early 2019, a mental-health crisis response center, the West Philadelphia Consortium, has worked to get the police to call in the consortium's mobile crisis team to de-escalate crises and get people into treatment. In more than 1,200 cases in 2019, police made only six arrests and no one died. After police shot and killed Walter Wallace, Jr., during a mental-health crisis, the consortium revealed that it had worked with Wallace but wasn't called for help when police were summoned to his home. The consortium seeks to formalize its relationship with the police department to prevent more violence.

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#EndSARS: Inside Nigeria's Fight to End Police Brutality

Innocent Eteng

October 29, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Lagos

Modeled in part on America's Black Lives Matter protest movement, Nigerian protests against brutality and extortion committed by the police have in a brief time attracted uncommon levels of support across ethnic and religious lines. The government responded by disbanding the primary focus of the protests, its notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), and made other concessions. Protesters say these steps, while welcomed, might easily be undercut by government intransigence. So they have vowed to continue pressing for reform of the Nigeria Police Force.

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Joe Biden Should Stop Bragging About the Violence Against Women Act

Elizabeth Nolan Brown

October 29, 2020 |

Reason |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The Violence Against Women Act was billed as a way to make a patriarchal society, and policing profession in particular, take domestic violence more seriously. It encouraged policies making arrest of alleged abusers mandatory, even to the point of punishing victims who refused to cooperate in prosecutions. This has backfired on many victims, especially women of color who distrust police and their punitive approaches to solving family problems. The law also prioritizes punitive approaches in its awarding of federal grants, thus denying victim aid to women who do not wish to cooperate with arrests.

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