Category: CRJ302 Community & CJ

For too many police officers, suspects don’t count as human. We all suffer the consequences. | | themercury.com

My junior high school world history teacher once explained to us how our government prepared the American public for the grotesqueries of war. First, he said, the government had to
— Read on themercury.com/for-too-many-police-officers-suspects-don-t-count-as-human-we-all-suffer-the/article_0d459b24-92dd-11ef-8dd1-9b362323c440.html

Police Oversight Report 2023 – City of Boulder

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

For the past five years, the City of Boulder embraced civilian oversight of the Boulder Police Department to ensure that the Boulder community participated in oversight of the Boulder Police Department (BPD). Similar to other municipalities and counties, oversight of BPD brought challenges to the community. One year ago, the City Council updated Boulder’s police oversight system when it passed Ordinance 8609.

Boulder City Council authorized the assembly of the Police Oversight Task Force in Spring of 2019 to investigate appropriate oversight of policing in Boulder. In response to recommendations made by the Task Force, Ordinance 8361 was passed in October of 2019, which created the Police Oversight Panel (Panel) and the predecessor to the Independent Police Monitor (Monitor).

Since its inception, the Panel was intended to overrepresent populations that historically experienced underrepresentation while also being more at risk for over-policing. Police oversight in Boulder experienced a tumultuous year in 2023 and continued growth in 2024. In late 2022, the inaugural Monitor resigned and the OIR Group was hired to act as interim Monitor while a replacement Monitor was recruited. At the same time, in early 2023 the City of Boulder also retained consultant Farah Muscadin to work with members of the Panel, community, BPD and legal staff to update the oversight ordinance. The City Council granted the Panel a moratorium to pause core functions to focus on the ordinance update. In August 2023, Sherry Daun began work as the Monitor and in October 2023, Ordinance 8609 passed City Council unanimously.

s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25246266/item_2_-_police_oversight_update.pdf

Why public safety is the key to functioning NYC subways — crime hot spots for over 50 years

New York has suffered 40 subway homicides since 2020, a five-fold increase compared to the post-millennial norm. New York went through a similarly abrupt change in public safety underground before, in the mid-1960s — but took 25 years to fix it. The fable of how New York achieved its miracle crime decline begins in 1990, with the stabbing death of 22-year-old Utah tourist Brian Watkins in a Midtown subway station, as he defended his parents from…
— Read on www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/why-public-safety-is-the-key-to-functioning-nyc-subways-crime-hot-spots-for-over-50-years/ar-AA1syvhz

US DoJ Weighs in for Advocates in Lawsuit against NYC’s Discriminatory Use of Police to Respond to Mental Health Crises – Legal Reader

DoJ supports advocates in suit to end discrimination against people with mental disabilities by sending police as first responders to mental health crises.
— Read on www.legalreader.com/us-doj-weighs-in-for-advocates-in-lawsuit-against-nycs-discriminatory-use-of-police-to-respond-to-mental-health-crises/

Access the court case here:

Baerga v. City of New York et al, No. 1:2021cv05762 – Document 193 (S.D.N.Y. 2024)

Not Taking Crime Seriously: California’s Prop 47 Exacerbated Crime and Drug Abuse | Manhattan Institute

In November 2014, California voters approved a criminal justice reform measure, Proposition 47 (“Prop 47”), with almost 60% support.[1] Ten years later, California voters are now considering rolling back some of its soft-on-crime policies. Prop 47 identified six “petty” crimes—grand theft, larceny, personal drug use, forgery, and two types of check fraud—and reclassified them. It […]
— Read on manhattan.institute/article/not-taking-crime-seriously-californias-prop-47-exacerbated-crime-and-drug-abuse