Tag: Police Reform

Jacksonville cops in hot water after brutalizing driver • Florida Phoenix

“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Aug. 28, 1963

As galling as it has been to watch a Jacksonville sheriff’s deputy break a car window and punch a non-combative man in the face, the feeble justification from the sheriff and a determination from the state attorney that cops did nothing wrong is just as infuriating.

The Feb. 19 videotape of an encounter with William McNeil, Jr. and a posse of rogue officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and their brutal response, is a searing reminder of everything wrong with policing in America.
— Read on floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/02/jacksonville-cops-in-hot-water-after-brutalizing-driver/

How You Start is How You Finish? The Slave Patrol and Jim Crow Origins of Policing

Originating in Virginia and Maryland, the American slave codes defined slaves from Africa as property rather than as people (Robinson 2017); that is, without rights. American slave codes were rooted in the slave codes of Barbados. According to Dr. Robinson (2017), the British established the Barbadian Slave Codes (laws) “to justify the practice of slavery and legalize the planters’ inhumane treatment of their enslaved Africans.” American policing in the South would begin as an institution—slave patrols—responsible for enforcing those laws (Turner et al., 2006), as slave uprisings were a threat to the social order and a chronic fear of plantation owners.

The first slave patrols were founded in the southern United States, the Carolina colony specifically (Reichel, 1992), in the early 1700s. By the end of the century, every slave state had slave patrols. According to Dr. Potter (2013), slave patrols accomplished several goals: apprehending escaped slaves and returning them to their owners; unleashing terror to deter potential slave revolts; and disciplining slaves outside of the law for breaking plantation rules.
— Read on www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/resources/human-rights/archive/how-you-start-how-you-finish-slave-patrol-jim-crow-origins-policing/

Intercept Briefing Podcast: Policing’s Past Haunts the Present

Rick Loessberg and Akela Lacy trace the trajectory of America’s unfinished reckoning with policing, from the 1967 Kerner Report to the George Floyd protests to Trump 2.0.
— Read on theintercept.com/2025/08/01/briefing-podcast-racism-police-protests-kerner/

See also at:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intercept-briefing/id1195206601?i=1000720202827

Community Voices: A Public Primer on News Reporting on Police Violence

As you read this report keep the following in mind:

  • News report is supposed to report the facts and not sell an AGENDA
  • Police Violence is not DEFINED
  • In this report Police Violence is naively considered as ANY police use of force
  • The report ignores CONTEXT of the police-citizen contact
  • People’s feeling are not FACTS
  • The FACTS are that police use force in less that 5% of police-citizen contacts and Deadly Force in less that 0.1% police-citizen contacts.

The research report, Community Voices: A Public Primer on News Reporting on Police Violence offers a practical review of the community impacts of, helpful and harmful narrative patterns in, and recommended standards for reporting on police violence. Through participatory analysis conducted in partnership with Community Co-Lead Mo Korchinski and clients at the Unlocking the Gates Services Society, these findings have been developed by community members who have experienced police violence to offer guidance to journalists, editors, and others who are interested in critical heart-based storytelling. The Student Co-Lead on this project, Emily R. Blyth, developed the research behind this publication through her time with the 2023-2024 CERi Graduate Fellowship program as a part her doctoral research which examines policing practices in Canada as a source of health inequity. This action-driven and accessibly written publication centers the voices of impacted community members to support the difficult work of reporting on police violence in ways that can expose the harms that police cause and that refuse to perpetuate those harms though uncritical narratives.

Get the Report HERE

CPD Working to ‘Fix’ Problem That Led to 211K Undocumented Traffic Stops, Police Official Tells City Panel | Chicago News | WTTW

CPD reported to state officials that officers made 295,846 traffic stops in 2024. But police dispatchers recorded that officers made an additional 210,622 stops in 2024 that were not documented, raising questions about how many traffic stops took place last year.
— Read on news.wttw.com/2025/07/02/cpd-working-fix-problem-led-211k-undocumented-traffic-stops-police-official-tells-city

Exclusive | Dozens of troubled NYPD cops finally forced to resign after faulty hiring standards

Dozens of NYPD cops and recruits who failed to meet the department’s standards – including for mental health – are now being forced to resign, or else they will be fired from the force, law enforcement sources revealed Thursday.

At least 30 cops and cadets – hired between 2023 and 2024 under Inspector Terrell Anderson, who has since been transferred out of his role with the Police Academy – were notified of the NYPD purge Thursday, according to the sources
— Read on nypost.com/2025/07/10/us-news/dozens-of-troubled-nypd-recruits-finally-forced-to-resign-after-faulty-hiring-standards/