Category: CRJ301 Police Mgt

Ferguson at Twelve: The Lie That Divided a Nation

Ferguson is often thought of as an isolated event, something that happened way back when. I recently had to explain what happened in Ferguson to several eighteen year olds who had never heard of the shooting, because they were six years old when it happened. But Ferguson is not an isolated event. In many ways, it is the beginning, or the key escalation, in the long running culture war that is now sixty years old, and its repercussions are felt to this day. Would the stunning response sanitizing the Hamas of October 7 as freedom fighters have been possible without how Ferguson changed the landscape? Likely not. Or it wouldn’t have been as successful. Ferguson was the launch of Black Lives Matter, the elevation of liberation ideology and the red-green axis that rolls stronger today than ever. And it all began on Canfield Drive with the dead body of Michael Brown lying on that scorching pavement that August afternoon and this weekend is the twelfth anniversary.
— Read on manofsteele.substack.com/p/ferguson-at-twelve-the-lie-that-divided

“You’re joking, not another one?”

Just days after the latest amendments to police conduct regulations came into force, the Home Office announced yet another review of police misconduct procedures. At what point do continual reforms stop improving the system and start undermining it?
West Midlands Police Federation conduct and performance lead Dave Hadley has written a blog setting out his views after the Home Office announced at the end of last month that it had launched an ‘end-to-end’ review into the police accountability system.
The review will be chaired by Dame Lynne Owens, a former Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and a former Director General of the National Crime Agency, and Jason Beer KC who are expected to report back within six months.
It will look at how police officers are held to account, identify barriers that can delay outcomes, and consider how the system can be made faster, fairer and more effective.
— Read on polfed.org/westmids/news-and-events/news/2026/you-re-joking-not-another-one/

New York’s ACS is failing children and kids are dying

The horrifying death of Adonis Jarvis raises a simple question: Why does New York’s ACS fail so many vulnerable children? Simple reforms, such as requiring agents to wear bodycams and demanding transparency would save lives. Kathy Hochul is standing in the way.
— Read on nypost.com/2026/08/08/opinion/new-yorks-acs-is-failing-children-and-kids-are-dying/

Killing of Corey Ruiz revives calls to shift power from police to communities

After bystander footage of police killing Corey Ruiz – a 38-year-old Black man in Madison, Wisconsin – spread online, many questioned why the officers were not wearing body cameras, a standard practice for more than 80% of police nationwide.

Police said Ruiz was wielding a knife and injured an officer; multiple bystander videos showed he was shot while already detained and on the ground. Ruiz’s family called for mandatory body cameras in the city, along with charges for the four officers involved. People across the political spectrum echoed the demand for cameras, including Madison’s police chief.

Within days, Madison’s mayor, Satya Rhodes-Conway, announced she would include funding for body cameras in the next city budget.

But local organizers say body cams are just one element of holding police accountable after harm has already been done; some would rather see community control over policing, and policies that reduce police interaction and address underlying issues, such as mental health services and homelessness support. (Ruiz was unhoused at the time of his death.)

Read on HERE

POLICE REFORM BY DECREE:HOW DOJ ENACTS ITS POLICING AGENDA | LELDF RESEARCH BRIEF | AUGUST 2023

Consent decrees are a blunt instrument for enacting police reform. The approach has proven ill-suited at enacting effective change in law enforcement agencies. These coercive reforms face institutional resistance from departments and their personnel and fall victim to mission creep from the unaccountable lawyers, judges, and bureaucrats who oversee the design and later the implementation of the reforms. The situation worsened significantly as the Obama Administration increased the use of consent decrees, a policy resumed under the Biden Department of Justice.

Often built on limited and flimsy evidence, the Justice Department’s allegations against police agencies put local jurisdictions in a near impossible position to contest civil rights violations findings.

Get the report HERE

Agents of Chaos and Cruelty: How the Trump Administration’s National Deportation Policing Force Has Attacked American Communities | American Civil Liberties Union

This ACLU research report, Agents of Chaos and Cruelty, documents widespread civil rights violations carried out by immigration agents during the first year of President Trump’s second term. The report examines immigration enforcement incidents in eight states – representing a cross-section of the country and reflecting varying degrees of federal law enforcement presence and personnel surges – and found that over 400 of the more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents examined involved misconduct by immigration agents. The report ends with detailed recommendations urging policymakers to call for transformative change to our immigration system, in recognition that it is broken and dangerous to human rights.
— Read on www.aclu.org/publications/agents-of-chaos-and-cruelty-how-the-trump-administrations-national-deportation-policing-force-has-attacked-american-communities

Berkeley Police Accountability Board Annual Report

The 2024 Annual Report of the Police Accountability Board (PAB) and the Office of the Director of Police Accountability (ODPA) reflects the continued evolution of Berkeley’s civilian oversight system. Pursuant to Section 125(16) of the Berkeley City Charter, this report documents the oversight activities conducted during the calendar year, including investigations, policy reviews, community engagement, data analysis, and systemic recommendations.

Get the report HERE

Predictive Risk Scores in the Public Sector: Experimental Evidence from Child-Protection Investigations | NBER

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.
— Read on www.nber.org/papers/w35540