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When Homelessness Becomes a Law Enforcement Problem—and Why They Can’t Solve It Alone

Law enforcement agencies across the United States are more and more involved in responding to homelessness. Calls for service involving people who are unhoused, especially those who are chronically homeless, take up a great deal of officer time and agency resources. But being homeless is not a crime. This fact means homelessness is not, at its core, a law enforcement issue.

Homelessness is a complex social problem. It is shaped by housing costs, health care systems, job markets, and social safety nets. These are systems that law enforcement agencies do not control. For this reason, law enforcement agencies should not lead a community’s response to homelessness. Instead, they should be one part of a larger, shared response. They are most effective when they work closely with local partners to address the problem together.

Because law enforcement officers are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, they often become the default responders to homelessness. However, they are rarely the best equipped to lead a full response. Law enforcement agencies should have a seat at the table, but they should not sit at the head of it. Strong responses require many partners, shaped by local needs. These partners often include other government agencies, housing providers, mental health professionals, public health agencies, outreach workers, researchers, and people with lived experience of homelessness. Law enforcement officers play an important role, but that role works best when it is supportive, strategic, and collaborative—not punitive or isolated.

There are links to documents at the bottom of this Blog. Read more HERE

Homeless Response Guide

Homelessness 7 Things to Know

Covering a police officer killed in the line of duty  • Indiana Capital Chronicle

We can expect a lot of coverage when an officer dies in the line of duty. But that coverage should offer the public a clear understanding of what happened and what can be done to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.  
— Read on indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/03/04/covering-a-police-officer-killed-in-the-line-of-duty/

Have Racial Disparities in Law Enforcement Stops Narrowed? – Public Policy Institute of California

California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) requires detailed reporting on all pedestrian and traffic stops. Recent RIPA data from the state’s largest law enforcement agencies points to a reduction in the overall number of stops—but we do not see a substantial narrowing of racial/ethnic disparities in intrusive experiences during stops.
— Read on www.ppic.org/publication/have-racial-disparities-in-law-enforcement-stops-narrowed/

NYC transit crime spiked nearly 20% as subway ejections paused due to extreme cold: NYPD

Transit crime spiked nearly 20% in February as cold weather policies prevented NYPD officers from booting rowdy passengers, the department said Monday. 
— Read on nypost.com/2026/03/02/us-news/nyc-transit-crime-spiked-nearly-20-as-subway-ejections-paused-due-to-extreme-cold-nypd/

New ACLU Report Reveals How the Trump Administration is Using Local Police to Build a National Deportation-Policing Force Through the 287(g) Program  | American Civil Liberties Union

Report Finds At Least 77.2 Million People Live in Counties Where Local Law Enforcement Participates in the Program 
— Read on www.aclu.org/press-releases/new-aclu-report-reveals-how-the-trump-administration-is-using-local-police-to-build-a-national-deportation-policing-force-through-the-287g-program

Criminal Risk Assessment and the Character Trap

People born in different years, even not that far apart, have wildly different outcomes.

Over the past three decades, successive birth cohorts in the United States have come of age in very different worlds of crime and its control. These shifting contexts shape people’s life chances in ways that challenge the belief in stable, individual propensities to commit crime and in timeless rules for predicting risk. Focusing on the life course of different birth cohorts — on when we are rather than who we are — reveals the power of the birth lottery of history.

This matters because common risk-assessment practices pervade the criminal justice system and extend well beyond it. Formal risk instruments are used to inform pretrial release and probation decisions, while criminal history information is used in sentencing, employment screening, tenant screening and occupational licensing. With the emergence of AI tools and large-scale databases, predictive risk assessment is accelerating.

But prognostications like these rest on assumptions of an individual’s stable criminal propensity or character. New research exposes the perils of this approach, revealing how rapidly changing times challenge common notions about prediction and enduring propensities to commit crime.

Read more HERE