Month: January 2025

Report: Deploying police was ‘reasonable,’ but UMass Amherst leaders could have chosen other responses | WBUR News

A new report released by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in part questions whether the school could have pursued alternative responses to a heavy police presence during campus protests of the war in Gaza last year.
— Read on www.wbur.org/news/2025/01/17/massachusetts-college-encampment-protest-gaza

Get the report HERE

Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Year-End 2024 Update – Council on Criminal Justice

Key Takeaways

This study updates and supplements previous U.S. crime trends reports by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) with data through December 2024. It examines yearly and monthly rates of reported crime for 13 violent, property, and drug offenses in 40 American cities that have consistently reported monthly data over the past six years. The 40 cities are not necessarily representative of all jurisdictions in the United States. Not all cities published data for each offense (see the Appendix for which cities reported which offenses); trends in offenses with fewer reporting cities should be viewed with caution. Not all crimes are reported to law enforcement. In addition, the data collected for this report are subject to revision by local jurisdictions.

Reported levels of 12 of the 13 offenses covered in this report were lower in 2024 than in 2023; shoplifting was the only offense higher in 2024 compared to 2023.
— Read on counciloncj.org/crime-trends-in-u-s-cities-year-end-2024-update/

Trump Reverses Biden Directive on Policing Reforms | Brennan Center for Justice

After the Senate failed in 2021 to pass a bipartisan package of law enforcement reforms — the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — the Biden administration sought to implement as much of the legislation as possible through executive order. Signed May 2022 on the second anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, the action aimed “to promote safe and accountable policing” in myriad ways.
— Read on www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trump-reverses-biden-directive-policing-reforms

Over a dozen current and former officers say they believe MPD’s Katie Blackwell perjured herself during Derek Chauvin trial

Fourteen current and former MPD officers say they believe MPD Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell perjured herself during Derek Chauvin’s trial.
— Read on alphanews.org/over-a-dozen-current-and-former-officers-say-they-believe-mpds-katie-blackwell-perjured-herself-during-derek-chauvin-trial/

KUOW – Seattle Community Police Commission seeks to regroup from internal turmoil, influence crowd control ordinance

Seattle’s Community Police Commission was created to amplify the voices of communities affected by policing and weigh in on police reform. But internal conflicts, vacancies, and turnover have frustrated that mission in recent years, according to an outside review.

Now members say they’re trying to move forward in time to influence the city’s latest ordinance governing crowd management and less-lethal weapons.

Seattle’s Community Police Commission was created as part of the city’s 2012 consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department, after federal officials found a pattern of unconstitutional excessive force by police.
— Read on www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-community-police-commission-seeks-to-regroup-from-internal-turmoil