Author: scott prell

Ohio Lawmaker Wants Law Requiring Police to Record Race During Traffic Stops

An Ohio lawmaker says she will introduce legislation requiring police agencies to record race data when making traffic stops, following a Marshall Project – Cleveland investigation into how the village of Bratenahl tickets mostly Black drivers from neighboring Cleveland.

State Rep. Juanita Brent, a Democrat from Cleveland, said the information is needed to determine whether police agencies unfairly stop more Black and Brown drivers compared to White drivers.

This article was published in partnership with News 5 Cleveland.

The Marshall Project – Cleveland’s investigation noted that 60% or more of drivers cited for traffic violations by Bratenahl police since 2020 were Black.

See More HERE

New National Academies of Sciences reports | Modern Policing

The National Academies of Sciences has recently published 4 reports aimed at guiding international police assistance efforts. The reports were produced by expert committees that reviewed and assessed existing research and evidence. The reports are available at the links below for free download. Policing to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population –…
— Read on gcordner.wordpress.com/2022/12/01/new-national-academies-of-sciences-reports/

London’s Violence Reduction Unit

What we know from the research on preventing violence

Those involved in violence are likely to be vulnerable in multiple, interrelated ways and many may have experienced past victimisation and trauma. A lot of research has examined the relationship between exposure to what researchers have called ‘adverse childhood experiences’ – or ACEs in the research literature – and violent offending.

Adverse childhood experiences take on many forms, such as the death of a parent or close friend, household criminality, exposure to domestic abuse, substance misuse or bullying, and difficulties with health, communication or learning. These experiences can increase vulnerability to violence. In short, ACEs are a form of trauma, or series of traumas, experienced during the important, formative stages of a life.

We try to minimise these risk factors and instead build resilience. The Violence Reduction Unit commissions research to inform future approaches and provides funding to projects and programmes that target prevention at individuals. 

There are a series of report available at the website. Check them out HERE

Targeting Retaliation: Stopping the chain reaction of gun violence in Paterson

Targeting Retaliation: Stopping the chain reaction of gun violence in Paterson, NJ(13:11) (Check out the video at the link below)

The Paterson Healing Collective has been working to reduce shootings in the city since 2020. This is the story of the work they do and the lives they touch.

Michael Karas (see interview at link below) is a visual journalist at NorthJersey.com and The Record. After years in which he often reported several stories a day, Karas recently devoted all his time to a single story: A documentary about an anti-violence organization called the Paterson Healing Collective. We wanted to learn more about the project, and this important group. This conversation has been edited for clarity, and condensed for length.

See more HERE

Police Accountability Task Force | Chicago 2016

As part of our work, the Task Force heard from many current and former CPD officers who are dedicated public servants, committed to performing their duties lawfully and making Chicago a safer place for all of its residents. Serving as a police officer is a challenging and often dangerous job. The police face an increasingly daunting challenge in crime fighting. Illegal guns flood the streets of the same neighborhoods that are devastated by crime, poverty and unemployment. We as a society cannot expect the police to cure every ill in Chicago’s neighborhoods. Yet we put significant pressure on them to solve and prevent crime, as well as to address the manifestations of a number of other daunting social and economic challenges beyond their charge and capacity to manage, let alone solve. Still, a keen appreciation of and sensitivity to these broader issues is critical to effective law enforcement and positive community-police relations.

The findings and recommendations in this report are not meant to disregard or undervalue the efforts of the many dedicated CPD officers who show up to work every day to serve and protect the community. The challenge is creating a partnership between the police and the community that is premised upon respect and recognizes that our collective fates are very much intertwined. Simply put, a more professional, engaged and respectful police force benefits us all. We cannot and have not shied away

from identifying systemic problems or challenges that undermine the efforts of those officers who are sincerely committed to doing their jobs the right way. To be sure, individual officers must own responsibility for not merely their actions each day, but also the reverberating and sometimes corrosive and lingering effect of those actions on citizens. And ultimately, the responsibility for setting the correct course lies with CPD leadership itself.

igchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PATF_Final_Report_4_13_16-1.pdf