Tag: Research

What Happened after California Changed the Rules Related to Police Use of Deadly Force? – Public Policy Institute of California

Five years ago, state lawmakers limited the legal justifications for police officers’ use of deadly force. We examine recent trends in the number of people seriously injured or killed during police encounters as well as in the provision of timely medical care for those injured.
— Read on www.ppic.org/blog/what-happened-after-california-changed-the-rules-related-to-police-use-of-deadly-force/

2024 George L. Kelling Lecture: Re-Grounding Criminology in Reality

Over the past decade, criminology, like many academic fields, has drifted away from rigorous science rooted in evidence. Ideological narratives—about race, identity, and the expendability of the criminal justice system—have gained so much dominance that bias has crept into university departments, think tanks, and even groups like the American Society of Criminology. This bias doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and the net result harms the safety of our most vulnerable communities—and creates agencies and strategies that are less efficient, resourced, and innovative. The 2024 George L. Kelling Lecture features three of America’s leading criminologists, who discuss what this ideological sway looks like from inside the academic world. They discuss how this translates into the types of research that gets funded and promoted, how this impacts public safety, and how criminologists, practitioners, policymakers, and citizens can move criminology back toward a scientific grounding.

Access the video HERE

Worcester Police Reform Strategy: Attack the DOJ

Very interesting take on the DOJ consent decree investigations.

Worth a read.

Worcester responds to the DOJ report on the police department in the worst possible way, indicating it will remain in denial that there is a problem.
— Read on thisweekinworcester.com/worcester-attacks-doj-report-police/

Also check out this report on an analysis of DOJ Police department investigations.

See: https://www.wrrb.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Bureau-Brief-DOJ-Pattern-or-Practice-Investigations.pdf

New Jersey State Police Traffic Stop Analysis 2018-21

Introduction

In November 2021, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (NJ-OPIA) engaged the author of this study for the purpose of conducting an independent analysis of traffic stops made by the New Jersey State Police (NJ-SP). Based on the author’s extensive experience working

with state and local policymakers to develop early warning systems for identifying police disparities, the NJ OPIA requested that the analysis focus on the central question of whether there was disparate treatment on the part of NJ-SP towards racial and ethnic minorities.2 After cleaning and linking all of the raw data provided by the New Jersey Office of Law Enforcement Professional Standards (NJ-OLEPS), the analytical sample used in this analysis consisted of 6,177,109 traffic stops made by NJ-SP from 2009 to 2021. In the full analytical sample, 60.52 percent of traffic stops were made of White non-Hispanic motorists while 18.8 percent were Black/African-American and 13.44 percent were Hispanic/Latinx. The overall volume of minority motorists stopped by NJ-SP increased from 35.34 percent in 2009 to 46.28 percent in 2021

www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases23/2023-0711_NJSP_Traffic_Stop_Analysis.pdf

Justice Department Finds Civil Rights Violations by the Trenton Police Department and the City of Trenton, New Jersey

Specifically, the Justice Department finds that TPD unlawfully uses excessive force, including unreasonable forms of physical force and pepper spray in the absence of any significant resistance or danger. TPD also conducts stops, searches and arrests without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. In addition, the department identified deficiencies in training, supervision, policy and accountability that contribute to TPD and the city’s unlawful conduct.

“Police officers must respect people’s civil and constitutional rights and treat people with dignity,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “After an extensive review, we found that police officers in Trenton routinely failed to respect the Fourth Amendment rights of those who call Trenton home. Trenton police stop and search pedestrians and motorists without a legal basis, make illegal arrests and use excessive force without basis. We are committed to the hard work necessary to achieve constitutional policing across the country. By bringing city officials, the police department and the community together, we are confident that we can institute meaningful reforms that remedy the violations uncovered.”
— Read on www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-trenton-police-department-and-city-trenton