Tag: Police Community Relationships

NYC lawmakers set to require NYPD to report low-level stops – Gothamist

This narrative that minor police and citizen contacts are dangerous is false and is not supported by the evidence. Do police-citizen contacts involving minor incidents sometimes end badly? Yes. But in context of 10s to 100s of millions of police-citizen contacts per year it is an extremely rare occurrence for citizens to be injured and even more rare for citizens to be killed.

If the types of police-citizen contacts are looked at starting with violent and serious crime decreasing in severity of call type to the most casual non-criminal type of police-citizen contacts breakdown in following categories:

  • 1-2% Serious and violent crime
  • 5% Felonies
  • 10% Misdemeanors
  • 25% Violations & VTL
  • 60% Non-criminal contacts

Looking at the breakdown of the of types of police calls, it is obvious that the most police-citizen contacts that occur in non-law-enforcement situations, minor crime, and low level crime situations. Therefore it makes sense that much of the police-citizen contacts that end badly fall into the noncriminal type contacts, the violation level, VTL level, and low level crime type of police activity. It should not be surprising that when police have contact with citizens even at a non-criminal level contact, there is always a potential of the contact ending badly because there are millions of such of these types of contacts and if a person starts becoming violent for some reason the police must respond accordingly.

Many of the police-citizen contacts that turn to violence are driven by the citizen. Police react to the behavior of the citizen. So, at any time, if a citizen becomes violent, the police must escalate their level of force to overcome the citizens level of force. And innocuous type call can escalate into violence when a citizen becomes violent and could end in the death of that citizen. For example, if a citizen pulls a gun on a police officer. In this type of example, the officer does not drive the situation they merely respond to the situation.

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— Read on gothamist.com/news/nyc-lawmakers-set-to-require-nypd-to-report-low-level-stops

D.C. police distribute free AirTags for vehicles as carjackings soar – The Washington Post

Commentary: The police should take this concept a step further. There should be an software application the a police department has where the public can register a vehicle and an AirTag or similar device so if a vehicle gets stolen the victim can open an App on there phone and indicate that their car was stolen. This App would immediately notify the police and the begin the track the vehicle realtime so the police can monitor the stolen vehicle. This would allow the police to coordinate resources for a possible intervention and apprehension.

After the emergency button is pressed for the initial notification the victim can begin to answer a few questions to complete the police report process. This could also begin a deposition and other important information.

The two-day giveaway event on Tuesday and Wednesday was one of the latest efforts from city leadership to address rising carjacking in the District.
— Read on www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/12/06/dc-police-airtag-carjacking/

School Resource Officers, 2019–2020 | Bureau of Justice Statistics

This report provides details on demographics and certification of school resource officers (SROs) by the type of law enforcement agency that employs them. It also describes law enforcement, mentoring, and teaching activities performed by the officers. The report discusses equipment typically carried and training received by the officers.
— Read on bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/school-resource-officers-2019-2020

Policing Young People in NSW: A study of the Suspect Targeting Management Plan | Public Interest Advocacy Centre

The New South Wales Police Force (NSW Police) Suspect Targeting Management Plan (STMP) seeks to prevent future offending by targeting repeat offenders and people police believe are likely to commit future crime. The STMP is both a police intelligence tool that uses risk assessment to identify suspects and a policing program that guides police interaction with individuals who are subject to the program.
— Read on piac.asn.au/2017/10/25/policing-young-people-in-nsw-a-study-of-the-suspect-targeting-management-plan/

One in Five: Disparities in Crime and Policing

As you read this report draw your own conclusions but I must highlight that the usual attacks are made on police. It almost amounts to “nothing works” in policing in it’s current state which is absolutely false. The usual attacks are: racial disparities in policing are driven solely by racism and nothing to do with offender accountability, police tactics like pedestrian and vehicle stops are bad, police in schools are bad, broken windows doesn’t work, reduce police use of force (not that it’s a function of police being attacked), Increase police oversight (where members have personal agendas that conflict with the community and police goals). This list of grievances is a broken record without viable or proven examples of what works without policing. Nonetheless I present their argument.

Executive Summary

This report interrogates the large footprint of policing—particularly of Black Americans— as, in part, a failed response to racial disparities in serious crimes.  The wide net that police cast across people of color is at odds with advancing safety because excessive police contact often fails to intercept serious criminal activity and diminishes the perceived legitimacy of law enforcement. Excessive policing also distracts policymakers from making investments to promote community safety without the harms of policing and incarceration. In addition, the large footprint of policing gets in the way of, as the National Academies of Sciences has called for, needed “durable investments in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods that match the persistent and longstanding nature of institutional disinvestment that such neighborhoods have endured over many years.”

Nate: There are several parts to this series.

Read more here: https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/one-in-five-disparities-in-crime-and-policing/

Get a .PDF of the report here: https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2023/10/One-in-Five-Disparities-in-Crime-and-Policing.pdf

Moncton Dieppe RiverviewPublic SafetyPolicing Services Study

The idea of this report was to assist in making a determination whether to continue to maintain police services from the local police departments or to use the services or the RCMP. There are tradeoffs that can’t be measured by a study without being specific in it’s purpose. There are benefits have the police live in the community they patrol. Having a police force committed solely to the community that it patrols. Then there are the community networking and knowledge of the community that is important. Intimate knowledge of the local crime issues and the local criminals, which the RCMP officers probably would be less aware about. Lastly there is a tendency to for the RCMP to deploy minimal resources and to draw resources from neighboring areas when needed even for routine matters. This will decrease police sevices overall.

Executive Summary

The focus of the Study is to determine the requirements for a modern public safety police service and to compare and contrast the delivery of policing services by either the current Codiac Regional Police – a contracted RCMP model, or a regional municipal police force, or a
combination of RCMP and municipal services.

The methodology included:

  • an analysis and measurement of the Codiac policing workload
  • comparisons with other Canadian police agencies
  • research of policing initiatives and approaches across Canada, the US, and the UK
  • interviews with Tri-Community elected officials and administrative staff, and with senior Codiac Regional Police officers and RCMP ‘J’ Division
  • interviews with the New Brunswick Department of Justice and Public Safety Canada staff
  • a Space Analysis of existing and future facility needs
  • a site visit by eight members of the Study team
  • a literature review of the public safety issues under study
  • a review of the Final Report of the Mass Casualty Commission

The Study identified significant costs, challenges, and risk in considering a move to create a
regional municipal police force, and a combined model is not considered feasible. A transition
plan to a regional municipal police force would require – most importantly – a long-term
agreement and commitment by all stakeholders: the community, councils, the Department of
Justice, and Public Safety Canada to move ahead with a change in service provider.

A .pdf of the report can be downloaded HERE