Month: February 2022

San José Independent Police Auditor’s Office Statement on Reports Assessing the San Jose Police Department

Three reports released.

The After-Action Report for San Jose Police Department response to the protests from the death of George Floyd.

Use of Force Report by the San Jose Police Department.

21st Century Police assessment of the San Jose Police Department.

NEWS RELEASE: San José Independent Police Auditor’s Office Statement on Reports Assessing the Police Department | News | City of San Jose
— Read on http://www.sanjoseca.gov/Home/Components/News/News/3783/4699

Drug Arrests Stayed High Even as Imprisonment Fell From 2009 to 2019

To better identify and understand recent changes in and effects of the use of the criminal legal system to address drug problems, The Pew Charitable Trusts analyzed publicly available national data on drug arrests and imprisonment, drug treatment, and harm from drug misuse from 2009 through 2019—the most recent decade for which data is available.
The study found divergent enforcement trends—high rates of arrest but substantially reduced incarceration—coupled with a lack of treatment options and high mortality rates among people with illicit drug dependence.

  • Drug possession arrests held steady at more than a million a year, in stark contrast with a large reduction in overall arrests, which dropped 29%.
  • Only 1 in 13 people who were arrested and had a drug dependency received treatment while in jail or prison.
  • Racial disparities in drug enforcement declined. Arrests of Black people for drug offenses fell by 37%, more than three times the drop among White people.
  • Increased arrests of White individuals for possession of methamphetamine offset declines in marijuana arrests and drove the reduction in racial disparities.
  • The numbers of people admitted to and held in state prisons for drug offenses both fell by about a third, accounting for 61% of the overall reduction in prison populations and 38% of the total decline in admissions.
  • The decline in the number of Black people incarcerated for drug offenses made up 26% of the decrease in prison admissions and 48% of the drop in the prison population.
  • Drug- and alcohol-related mortality rates increased fivefold in prisons and threefold in jails despite the decreases in the number of people in prison for drug offenses.

See more HERE

The report can be downloaded HERE

Evaluation of Utah’s .05 BAC Per Se Law

Is it me or do others notice too that increasing the penalty or lowering the threshold for the crime only works for a crime like Driving While Intoxicated for preventing people from driving drunk? It doesn’t work for drugs, or theft, or shoplifting but it works for DWI. Interesting. Lower the criteria for DWI thereby more people will be violating the law and it makes more people stop breaking the law. Enforce DWI laws and more people stop drinking and driving.

In the news shoplifting is rampant yet lawmakers and prosecutors want to raise the criteria for committing shoplifting and they don’t what to prosecute shoplifting after a person is arrested. Yet the argument is that shoplifting will go down?

Why does it work in just the opposite way for DWI? In most cases DWI is the same level of crime as shoplifting and they carry the same punishment for prison. DWI has powerful lobbying groups – anti-shoplifting doesn’t. DWI carries substantial state penalties in the form of thousands of dollars in fines, shoplifting doesn’t. DWI carries substantial penalties for car insurance – not shoplifting. For DWI you need an attorney, you don’t need an attorney for shoplifting especially if its your first one. Bottom line DWI costs about $9,000.00 in fines, insurance, attorney fees, shoplifting $0.00 and in some states they don’t even want to persecute shoplifting.

The crime of DWI was made more severe in an attempt to lower the number of people committing DWI and fatal crashes. The crime of shoplifting Is being treated less harshly so people stop stealing. Does this make sense?

Why don’t government treat DWI like shoplifting? Then there would probably be NO DWIs at all!!!

Results
Legislative Review. This indicated the motivation for lowering the BAC law from .08 to .05 was a desire to improve traffic safety. The majority of objections were based on hypothesized negative effects on the economy (e.g., alcohol sales, tax revenues, and tourism), the belief arrests for driving under the influence (DUI) would increase drastically for people who had “one or two drinks,” and the assumption there would be no safety benefits.

The report can be accessed HERE

City of Long Beach Citizen Police Complaint Commission Independent Evaluation Final Report

Objectives of the Evaluation

There were four objectives of this project: (1) Optimize, to the fullest extent practicable, CPCC operations in accordance with current City Charter Provisions and prevailing laws, ordinances, and regulations; (2) Review other civilian police oversight models and identify options to redesign police oversight operations that will further enhance accountability and transparency in alignment with City and community expectations; (3) Identify any related legislative priorities that may be necessary to realize recommended reforms; and, (4) Create an implementation roadmap that identifies the necessary actions, timeline, and resources to realize recommended reforms, including amendments to the City Charter.

www.longbeach.gov/globalassets/city-manager/media-library/documents/cpcc/evaluation/cpcc-evaluation-report-final-2-7-22

Winnable Criminal Justice Reforms

CONTENTS

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/

(413) 527-0845

Expand alternatives to criminal justice system responses to social problems …………………………………1 Reduce the number of people entering the “revolving doors” of jails and prisons …………………………2

Improve sentencing structures and release processes to encourage

timely and successful releases from prison ……………………………………………………………………………..3

Reduce the footprint of the probation and parole system and support success on supervision…….5 Protect incarcerated people and families from exploitation by private contractors……………………….7 Promote physical and mental health among incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people………..7 Give all communities equal voice in how our justice system works ………………………………………………..9 Eliminate relics of the harmful and racist “war on drugs” ………………………………………………………………10

static.prisonpolicy.org/reports/winnable2021.pdf

War Comes Home At America’s Expense: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing-SWAT

This is an interesting publication. The ACLU conducts an analysis of SWAT. In the publication there is the analysis, the findings, and recommendations. Then in an Appendix there are a MOU, policy, training PowerPoint, operational plan. These documents provide a unique perspective (an insiders view) on a SWAT deployment.

I think this would be a perfect resource for Criminal Justice courses or for students reporting on SWAT or policing.

www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/jus14-warcomeshome-report-web-rel1.pdf