Seattle federal monitor’s communications with police raise questions over impartial oversight

This is an interesting article on the “inside” discussions that take place with police monitoring and reform.

Messages obtained by Prism reveal backchannel coordination with the Seattle Police Department about policing tactics and budgeting
— Read on prismreports.org/2025/03/10/seattle-police-federal-monitor-antonio-oftelie/

Legitimacy Policing In Depth | RAND

Law enforcement officers are more effectively able to carry out their duties and responsibilities if they are perceived as having legitimate authority by the citizenry that they serve. Members of the community are more likely to follow the law (Tyler, 2006; Jackson et al., 2012) and to cooperate with police (Tyler and Fagan, 2008) when they believe that the laws, and the officers enforcing them, are legitimate. Improving relations with the community not only improves legitimacy; it is also a core objective of policing in its own right, as identified by panels of subject-matter experts on policing (Hollywood et al., 2015, pp. 12–13; Hollywood et al., 2017, pp. 36–37).
— Read on www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TL261/better-policing-toolkit/all-strategies/legitimacy-policing/in-depth.html

Patrol officer activity by single- versus double-crewed status: The call-related output of one-officer and two-officer patrol units – ScienceDirect

Highlights

Patrol officers work in either single-crewed (i.e., one-officer) or double-crewed (i.e., two-officer) units.

We use electronic police records from the Oakland Police Department to assess the call-related output of patrol units.

The call-related output of single- and double-crewed units appears generally more similar than different.

It is possible that double-crewed units may handle more serious calls for service than single-crewed units.

Scholars and practitioners should continue to assess the implications of crewed status for patrol deployment.
— Read on www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0047235224000977

At the time of this post the article was open access.

NY’s Highest Court Issues Landmark Ruling Requiring Full Disclosure of Police Misconduct Records to NYCLU

Following a lawsuit from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) with pro bono counsel A&O Shearman, the New York Court of Appeals ruled today that the Rochester Police Department must publicly disclose all records related to police discipline and misconduct allegations, regardless of whether the RPD “substantiated” the complaint or imposed discipline, following the 2020 repeal of 50-a.
— Read on www.nyclu.org/press-release/nys-highest-court-issues-landmark-ruling-requiring-full-disclosure-of-police-misconduct-records-to-nyclu

Why Cops Shoot: The entire Tampa Bay Times project on Florida police | Tampa Bay Times

No one was keeping track of police shootings in the country’s third-largest state. So in 2014, the Tampa Bay Times set out to count every officer-involved shooting in Florida during a six-year period. We learned that at least 827 people were shot by police — one every 2½ days. We learned that blacks are shot at a higher rate than whites. We learned that on-duty police are almost never charged with crimes for firing, even though agencies pay millions to settle civil lawsuits.

We learned that there are ways to avoid some of the violence.
— Read on projects.tampabay.com/projects/2017/investigations/florida-police-shootings/