Tag: Police Community Relationships

When Homelessness Becomes a Law Enforcement Problem—and Why They Can’t Solve It Alone

Law enforcement agencies across the United States are more and more involved in responding to homelessness. Calls for service involving people who are unhoused, especially those who are chronically homeless, take up a great deal of officer time and agency resources. But being homeless is not a crime. This fact means homelessness is not, at its core, a law enforcement issue.

Homelessness is a complex social problem. It is shaped by housing costs, health care systems, job markets, and social safety nets. These are systems that law enforcement agencies do not control. For this reason, law enforcement agencies should not lead a community’s response to homelessness. Instead, they should be one part of a larger, shared response. They are most effective when they work closely with local partners to address the problem together.

Because law enforcement officers are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, they often become the default responders to homelessness. However, they are rarely the best equipped to lead a full response. Law enforcement agencies should have a seat at the table, but they should not sit at the head of it. Strong responses require many partners, shaped by local needs. These partners often include other government agencies, housing providers, mental health professionals, public health agencies, outreach workers, researchers, and people with lived experience of homelessness. Law enforcement officers play an important role, but that role works best when it is supportive, strategic, and collaborative—not punitive or isolated.

There are links to documents at the bottom of this Blog. Read more HERE

Homeless Response Guide

Homelessness 7 Things to Know

Covering a police officer killed in the line of duty  • Indiana Capital Chronicle

We can expect a lot of coverage when an officer dies in the line of duty. But that coverage should offer the public a clear understanding of what happened and what can be done to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.  
— Read on indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/03/04/covering-a-police-officer-killed-in-the-line-of-duty/

Vital City | What ICE’s Recklessness Teaches Us About Real Policing

As you read this article think for a moment would the situation be better in Minneapolis if the local police assisted ICE and controlled unlawful protestors.

The illegitimate Minneapolis surge gives municipal departments an opportunity to demonstrate what legitimacy looks like.
— Read on www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/minnesota-ice-alex-pretti-policing

Videos of Aggressive Contempt For Police Officers Show Gap Between Left’s Rhetoric and Reality

“Yooo they violated them!! They viiiiolated themmm!!!!” So went the commentary of a woman heard on a now-viral cellphone video showing two male police officers in Brooklyn being doused with buckets of water last Saturday, after approaching a group on the street. Even after the officers had turned and walked away, perpetrators kept dumping water […]
— Read on www.city-journal.org/article/is-this-what-fear-looks-like

Chicago Police Disproportionately Used Force Against Black Chicagoans, Study Commissioned by Department Finds | Chicago News | WTTW

The study, conducted by social scientists from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania blamed “systemic factors” for the disparity, not the actions of individual officers.
— Read on news.wttw.com/2026/02/19/chicago-police-disproportionately-used-force-against-black-chicagoans-study-commissioned

Read the full study and its executive summary.

‘Backing down isn’t an option’: Minnesota ICE shootings mobilize Americans to join ICE observer groups | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) | The Guardian

The killings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti have inspired people across the US to document federal agents’ activities in their communities
— Read on www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/31/ice-observer-document-immigration-agents

What Federal Immigration Enforcement Is Doing Isn’t Policing—and It Isn’t Normal | Seth W. Stoughton, Ian T. Adams, Geoffrey P. Alpert, Gil Kerlikowse, Maureen Q. McGough, Jeffrey J. Noble | Verdict | Legal Analysis and Commentary from Justia

This opinion piece by policing experts Seth W. Stoughton, Ian T. Adams, Geoffrey P. Alpert, Gil Kerlikowse, Maureen Q. McGough, and Jeffrey J. Noble addresses federal immigration enforcement tactics under the Trump administration. The authors argue that the conduct of agencies like ICE and CBP has departed from established norms in policing in a way that has undermined public safety, particularly through fatal shootings. They contend that these actions—marked by poor planning, aggressive field tactics, and a disregard for accountability—are not just unprofessional but dangerously authoritarian, threatening public safety and the legitimacy of policing itself.
— Read on verdict.justia.com/2026/01/29/what-federal-immigration-enforcement-is-doing-isnt-policing-and-it-isnt-normal

Police Against the Movement: How Local Cops Sabotage Freedom Struggles with Author Joshua Davis | KPFA

This is the link to the Podcast https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20260121-Wed1600.mp3

On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sits down with Joshua Davis, a history professor at the University of Baltimore and author of Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back. The conversation digs into a part of civil rights history that is usually blurred out of the frame: how local police departments, not just the FBI, designed and refined a playbook to crush Black freedom movements and the organizers who led them.
— Read on kpfa.org/episode/hard-knock-radio-january-21-2026/

Episode 14: When the Police Back Off

There have been many questions about police proactive behavior and its impact on crime. In 2020 two events caused police officers to “back off” on their street activity. Dr. Jessica Huff explains the research into de-policing and how a reduction in proactive behavior lead to an increase in some types of crime.

Main Topics

Police officers backed off on their proactive behavior as the result of both department policy during COVID, as well as the social pressure after the death of George Floyd.

Street-level officers demonstrated a significant reduction in some behavior.

Backing off on proactive behavior was associated with an increase in some types of violent and property crime.

Get the podcast HERE