Tag: Policy

California Wants New Education Requirements for Police Officers. Are They Watered Down?

Amid calls for police reform in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, California lawmakers set out to raise education standards for incoming law enforcement officers. Five years later — as California faces a widespread shortage of police officers — those reforms are being debated once again.
— Read on www.usnews.com/news/best-states/california/articles/2025-07-08/california-wants-new-education-requirements-for-police-officers-are-they-watered-down

The Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act of 2025

U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) are at it again, sponsoring a bill (VISIBLE Act of 2025) to mandate how ICE investigates immigration law under the guise of transparency and Accountability. See more about VISIBLE HERE

One problem with this bill is Booker/Padilla and others are trying to eliminate one means of protection that ICE Agents have to protect themselves and their families from threats and violence. See a recent article by Jonathan Turley that discusses some of the encouragement of violence and resistance by Law Makers. Access the article HERE.

Why don’t Law Makers support actions to protect the public and law enforcement? Under the lies of peaceful protests some law makers call upon protestors to not give up and to increase their resistance to law enforcement. These law makers are complicit in the attacks on law enforcement.

Search social media for ICE protest videos and it is easy to see that these so called protests are far from non-violent. In various videos it is common to see attacks on law enforcement that are criminal. This video is a recent example. As ICE agents are making an arrest the protesters actions could easily led to an arrest for “Resisting Arrest, Obstructing law enforcement, Assault and/or Battery”. There are no “protest exemptions” that allow protesters to commit crimes. Barriers to law enforcement making arrests is that they don’t have enough resources to deal with the protest and make arrests, follow-up arrests are difficult because protestors wear masks and even without masks identification is difficult, Ice agents are federal officers and protestors are committing state crimes, politicians and news media promote an anti-police narrative, and local district attorneys (unlawfully) refuse to prosecute. Question: If a person would push, shove, block, or scream in the face of a politician, prosecutor, or judge how would this person be treated? Treated to an arrest.

Instead of trying to handcuff ICE operations, law makers should support stopping violent actions of protesters, provide resources for law makers to arrest on crimes committed by protester on sight or by follow-up, and make laws to protect law enforcement and their family in their personal lives (penalty enhancements for attacking law enforcement, especially off-duty). If law broken by protestors and these crimes fully and completely enforced, protestor violence would definitely decrease or even stop.

Policing is a job. When police leave the job and go home they have the right to be left alone and not threatened or stalked. Currently there seams little effort to protect law enforcement during protests or during their private lives. Law Makers should focus on stopping criminals, ICE agents trying to protect their identities to keep their families safe is not a crime.

Discipline for police misconduct on the rise in New Jersey, data shows • New Jersey Monitor

Nearly 550 officers in New Jersey were fired, demoted, or suspended for more than five days in 2024 for misconduct, up from 460 cops in 2023.
— Read on newjerseymonitor.com/2025/07/07/discipline-for-police-misconduct-on-the-rise-in-new-jersey-data-shows/

See the NJ Attorney General’s website on police discipline

Recommended Readings | Situational Crime Prevention | ASU Center for Problem-Oriented Policing

Scroll down to the bottom for 6 very interesting articles. The articles are accessible by the link below. The magazine is members only.

The SCRAP Test: Identifying Common Fallacies About Effective Crime Prevention
— Read on popcenter.asu.edu/content/recommended-readings-situational-crime-prevention

Factors influencing the spatial distribution of police stops and their efficacy in crime prevention and control | in Nature

Abstract
Targeted police stops are frequently carried out by police in response to real-world needs. The effectiveness of various purpose-driven police stop tactics on crime prevention and control varies. However, existing research has neither identified the associated factors of police stops nor explored their impact on crime with different factors. Therefore, this study focuses on the main urban areas of megacities along the southeast coast of China. The space is partitioned using hierarchical clustering after applying the XGBoost and SHAP algorithms to determine the factors related to police stops. Lastly, this study explores the causal effects of police stops with different associated factors on crime, using causal forests within double machine learning. There are three conclusions. First, there is a strong correlation between police stops and four variables: alarm, visiting population, criminal, and government agencies. Second, by clustering based on different associated factors of police stops, existing police stops can be classified into five categories according to their purposes: (i) composite stops positively associated with “Alarm, Visiting Population, Criminals” (AVC-CPS); (ii) composite stops positively associated with “Alarm, Visiting Population, Bus Station” (AVB-CPS); (iii) random stops with no significant positive association (NA-RPS); (iv) single police stops positively associated with “Alarm” (A-SPS); and (v) single stops positively associated with “Visiting Population” (V-SPS).
— Read on www.nature.com/articles/s41599-025-05355-0

Louisville resolution acknowledges the harm LMPD has caused | Opinion

Where were the Politicians when this was happening? The politicians oversee the police department.

Louisville Metro Council passed a resolution acknowledging the wrongs committed by LMPD and endorsing police reform. It’s a significant turning point.
— Read on www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2025/07/04/lmpd-louisville-resolution-metro-council-police-reform/84434222007/

The Past, Present, and Future of Police Body Cameras – R Street Institute

Executive Summary

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the criminal justice system. Law enforcement agencies are using it to predict crime, expedite response, and streamline routine tasks. One of the most promising applications can be found in body camera programs, where AI is transforming unmanageable archives of footage into active sources of insight.

AI can now analyze hundreds of hours of video in seconds. Early pilot programs suggest that these video-reviewing tools, when guided by human oversight, can uncover critical evidence that might otherwise be overlooked, reduce pretrial bottlenecks, and identify potential instances of officer misconduct. But these benefits come with risks. Absent clear guardrails, the same technologies could drift toward government overreach, blurring the line between public safety and state surveillance.
— Read on www.rstreet.org/research/the-past-present-and-future-of-police-body-cameras/

Looking at “Ferguson” by Washington University Journal of Law and Policy

Below are links to 2 issues from the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy.
Both issues focus on the Michael Brown death involving P/O Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri. Volume 49, Issue 1, 2015 are articles immediately after the Brown/Wilson event. Volume 78, Issue 1, 2025 is a 10 year follow-up to the Ferguson incident.

Volume 49 • Issue 1 • 2015

Notable Articles:

Volume 78 • Issue 1 • 2025 • Ten Years and Ten Miles: Reflecting on “Ferguson”

Notable Articles:

ECHC Needs Assessment Report – Erie County NY

Final Report Issued for Erie County Holding Center and Erie County Correctional Facility Comprehensive Facility and Operational Needs Assessment

Friday, May 30, 2025
As authorized by the County Legislature, Erie County DEP commissioned a Needs Assessment of the current Erie County Holding Center and Erie County Correctional Facility. The intent was to critically evaluate the condition of each facility and associated programs, to estimate future bed space and programming needs, determine what a new state of the art, trauma informed facility would need to include, and develop preliminary cost estimates. The Consultant Team completed their report in May 2025. 
A presentation was given by the Consultant Team to elected County officials and staff members on May 29, 2025.
The Final Report can be viewed here.
Visit https://erie.gov/jailstudy to view the full website.