This resource provides descriptions and general specifications of more than 40 Case Management Summary Reports, Case Listings, and Quality Assurance Reports, with special attention to their role in a court’s continuous quality improvement efforts for child welfare cases.
— Read on www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/catalog-core-child-welfare-case-management-reports-courts
Tag: Policy
Fixing ‘Broken Windows’ theory: Smart — not harsh — policing is the key to a safe and orderly city
If you’re familiar with the Broken Windows theory of policing, you may have learned of it, perhaps indirectly, from Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller “The Tipping Point,” published 25 years ago.
— Read on nypost.com/2025/01/05/opinion/fixing-broken-windows-theory-smart-not-harsh-policing-is-the-key-to-a-safe-and-orderly-city/
Broken Windows Policing Is Still the Best Way to Fight Crime
If you’re familiar with the Broken Windows theory of policing, you may have learned of it, perhaps indirectly, from Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller The Tipping Point, published 25 years ago. In the book’s most-discussed chapter, Gladwell sought to explain why New York City, in the 1990s, suddenly experienced the greatest drop in violent crime ever recorded. True, other cities saw crime declines in this period, but nowhere else did crime plunge so significantly and so swiftly. In just a few years, New York went from being one of the most dangerous and frightening big cities in America to one of the safest. Why?
Gladwell surveyed various possibilities having to do with the economy, changing demographics, and the waning of the deadly crack trade, but found them unpersuasive. The real difference-maker, he said, was the NYPD’s commitment to Broken Windows policing—the disarmingly simple idea that serious crimes are more likely to occur in disorderly environments than orderly ones. By upgrading people’s surroundings, the theory says, you can improve their behavior.
— Read on www.city-journal.org/article/broken-windows-policing-crime-malcolm-gladwell
How Michigan Stopped Saddling Children with Millions in Court Debt | Bolts
By the time Arrianna Jentink-Bristol paid off the $800 she owed in court debt, it was six months before her 18th birthday, and she had spent nearly the entirety of her teenage years on probation. Jentink-Bristol first entered Michigan’s juvenile justice system when she was 13 after getting into a physical fight with her mother, who she said was intoxicated and punching her three-year-old sister in the face. She remembered being subsequently detained and assigned a public defender who didn’t show up for one of her hearings. Following the arrest, Jentink-Bristol picked up another charge. She cycled through the juvenile justice system for two years and was detained in juvenile facilities, a mental hospital, and put on house arrest and probation, all while her bills continued to stack up.
— Read on boltsmag.org/michigan-juvenile-justice-reform-ending-court-debt/
RIPA Board Report 2025
The Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board (Board), supported by CRES and OGC, released its eighth annual report on January 1, 2025. The 2025 report contains an analysis of more than 4.7 million police and pedestrian stops conducted in 2023 under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). The report focuses on the policing of youth and examines available research that illustrates police stops and their associated actions have harmful repercussions for youth that reverberate beyond the initial stop itself. Studies show that direct contact with law enforcement is associated with poor educational outcomes, including reduced test scores and lower grade point averages, in addition to other downstream effects like disparities in the criminal legal system as well as in health and economic wellbeing.
— Read on oag.ca.gov/ab953/board/reports
Bus moochers take MTA for a ride thanks to discovery reform
In the state of New York, prosecuting “minor” crimes, like fare evasion, has become impossible under discovery reform, which advantages offenders often insurmountably.
— Read on nypost.com/2024/08/12/opinion/bus-moochers-take-mta-for-a-ride-thanks-to-discovery-reform/
Audit of the Municipal Police Training Committee
Executive Summary
In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Municipal Police Training Committee (MPTC) for the period January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2022.The purpose of our audit was to determine the following:
whether MPTC developed and implemented the trainings required by Chapter 69 of the Acts of 2018 (also known as the Criminal Justice Reform Act) and Chapter 253 of the Acts of 2020 (also known as the Police Reform Law), which are codified in Sections 116 A–D and G–K of Chapter 6 of the General Laws;
whether MPTC ensured that all MPTC-operated and MPTC-authorized training academies delivered a standardized training curriculum as required by Section 4(f)(1) of Chapter 6E of the General Laws; and
whether MPTC processed permanent exemptions to, and temporary waivers of, training requirements in accordance with Section 3.03 of Title 550 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations.
— Read on www.mass.gov/audit/audit-of-the-municipal-police-training-committee
Why school police officers may not be the most effective way to prevent violence
In an article from The Conversation: “Why school police officers may not be the most effective way to prevent violence” (available HERE) there are 5 main points raised in the article. I think that the author of the article has never closely observed or worked with a police-school partnership. The 5 points of why police should not be in schools discussed in the article are frequent talking points from the “anti-police in school” groups. I will briefly discuss each of the 5 points below.
They don’t address the root problems
Professor Behnken suggests that hardening school security and having social workers and therapists would make schools safer. Yes better physical security and appropriate therapists, social workers etc. could make schools safer. That is only part of the puzzle. Police are also part of a coordinated effort to make schools safe. Police are the enforcement part that is needed in the most unsafe schools. The police’s role is not to address root causes, the role of police in schools is to help promote a safe and positive learning environment for the 95% to 99% of students that go to school to learn without causing trouble.
Their role is not well defined
The role of the police in schools is defined specifically by the school, school district, and the police department. Each school district is their own government entity. The same with police departments, they are individual government entities. In many states its called home rule. The point here is that the school and the police department many times enter into a contract or memorandum of understanding to define the expectations and operation of police in schools. Nationally the role of police in schools might look not well defined but for each school the role and expectations of police in schools can be very specifically defined.
They do not increase students’ feelings of safety
“Most students either do not realize that their school has a school resource officer or don’t mind that one is present. In fact, most students report liking the officer at their school.” Professor Behnken this is a good thing that the school police are unnoticed and work in the background. Most of the student population probably has little contact with the school police officer. Why? Because most students (95%) behave in school and the police in school spend the majority of their time dealing with a very small percentage of the school population that commit most of the crime and disorder in school. Most of the students don’t know what the school officer has done to promote safty and a good enviornment in the school so the students can easily conclude that the officer doesn’t impact school safety. It might be uncool to want police in school.
They contribute to the ‘school-to-prison pipeline’
Professor Behnken writes “Research shows that the presence of school police officers increases the likelihood that a school will report common forms of student misbehavior, like cafeteria fights and vandalism, to law enforcement agencies”. Why shouldn’t the school report these activities to law enforcement? How is the offending student held accountable. Not every transgression in school ends with an arrest.
How are the good students valued if disorderly behavior, criminal activity, and damage to school property is ignored. Again keep in mind that about 5% of the school population engages in bad behavior. The rights of the 95% good kids need to be protected.
In today’s Juvenile Justice Systems no kid is being taking from school and placed in prison unless they earned it. A juvenile has to have committed a very serious crime (homicide, rape, robbery with a weapon, serious assault) to be removed from school and sentenced to detention. Or the student has had a very long record of criminal activity (in and out of school, most likely out of school) and a Family Court Judge might sentence then to detention. Probably 10 to 20 arrests. These examples are a direct result of the juveniles behavior and has nothing to do with having an officer in their school.
They sometimes infringe on students’ rights
Students have less rights than adults do. The 1st amendment doesn’t allow students to walk out of school to protest. Students would be disciplined for cutting school without permission and would receive their punishment from the principal and not the school officer. Students lockers and book bags can be searched at anytime by the school administrators. Police in schools probably rarely search a student or their belongings because the threshold for the police to conduct a search is much higher that when a school administrator can search.
Make sure to read the article by Professor Behnken (Here) and then share your thoughts.
NRF | The Impact of Retail Theft & Violence 2024
Retailers reported a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents per year in 2023 versus 2019 and a 90% increase in dollar loss due to shoplifting over the same time period. Conducted in partnership with the Loss Prevention Research Council and sponsored by Sensormatic Solutions, “The Impact of Retail Theft & Violence 2024” examines how theft and violence have evolved since before COVID and how retailers are combating today’s retail crime landscape.
The survey was conducted online among senior loss prevention and security executives in the retail industry June 10 through July 12. The study contains results from mid-size to large retailers across 164 retail brands, which accounted for $1.52 trillion in annual sales in 2023 or 30% of total retail sales. The brands represent a variety of retail sectors including specialty and luxury retail, home improvement, mass merchandise, grocery and pharmacy.
— Read on nrf.com/research/the-impact-of-retail-theft-violence-2024
Why Crime Matters, and What to Do About It • The Aspen Institute Economic Strategy Group
In this paper, Jennifer Doleac describes what is known about crime trends in the US and outlines the best evidence to date on the effectiveness of various approaches to reducing crime through prevention, deterrence, and rehabilitation.
Crime in the US rose during the 1980s and early 1990s before declining steadily until 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, homicides, shootings, and motor vehicle thefts spiked, but by late 2023, overall rates of homicides and shootings had returned to their pre-pandemic levels. Because less serious offenses such as carjackings are much more difficult to track with nationwide data systems, we currently have an incomplete picture of how those crimes have trended in recent years across the country. Certain types of crime remain high, however, and Doleac emphasizes that crime continues to disproportionately affect certain urban areas and communities.
— Read on www.economicstrategygroup.org/publication/doleac-crime/
Future of Policing 