Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.
— Read on www.nber.org/papers/w35540
Tag: Statistics
PSP Traffic Stop Data Analysis Reflects Impartial, Evidence-Based Policing | State Police | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, PA – As part of the Shapiro Administration’s commitment to transparency and fair policing, the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) today announced the release of an independent analysis of data collected from all trooper-initiated traffic stops conducted in 2025. The report was conducted by a research team based at the University of Cincinnati and led by Dr. Robin Engel, Senior Research Scientist at The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs and one of the nation’s leading policing researchers. The report represents the latest findings from PSP’s traffic stop data collection initiative, which is designed to strengthen public trust, enhance trooper and motorist safety, and inform policy and training.
— Read on www.pa.gov/agencies/psp/newsroom/psp-traffic-stop-data-analysis-reflects-impartial–evidence-base
Get a .PDF of the report HERE
Why ShotSpotter Case Clearance Depends on More Than Tech – PoliceResearchHub
Key Takeaways
Cameras and gunshot sensors, alone or together, did not improve case clearance for fatal or nonfatal shootings in Chicago. A 15-year, matched quasi-experimental study of 6,068 fatal and 64,884 nonfatal shootings (2005 to 2019) found null results across every treatment condition tested.
Shootings exposed to gunshot detection technology (GDT) were actually cleared at lower rates than matched control incidents (25.9% vs. 39.2% for fatal shootings; 25.1% vs. 30.6% for nonfatal shootings), though once the researchers controlled for other factors, the difference wasn’t statistically significant.
Camera coverage (CCTV) showed essentially no relationship to clearance for gun violence, consistent with prior research showing CCTV’s investigative benefits concentrate in theft and disorder cases, not shootings.
The one bright spot: Chicago’s Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSCs), district-level hubs that combine technology with dedicated staff and crime analysts, were linked to 19% to 24% higher odds of clearance in nonfatal shooting cases.
— Read on policeresearchhub.com/why-shotspotter-case-clearance-depends-on-more-than-tech/
How community groups, activists and local media turned Camden, New Jersey, into a model of police reform
Camden, New Jersey’s homicide rate in 2025 was four times the national average – still high, but a marked change from when it was 18 times the national average in 2012.
— Read on theconversation.com/how-community-groups-activists-and-local-media-turned-camden-new-jersey-into-a-model-of-police-reform-282835
Widespread Misuse of Crowd-Control Weapons by Law Enforcement | Research UC Berkeley
Open-source investigation documents many incidents of misuse and injuries across 16 U.S.
— Read on vcresearch.berkeley.edu/news/widespread-misuse-crowd-control-weapons-law-enforcement
A guide to racism in the criminal justice system
A repository of studies, surveys, and reports on the disparate ways white, Black, and Latino people are treated by police, prosecutors, courts, and prisons
— Read on radleybalko.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-racism-in-the-criminal
Professionalism and performance – police leadership for the future | College of Policing
Executive summary
The police leadership commission has undertaken the most comprehensive examination of police leadership in England and Wales in a generation. The independent commission was set up by the College of Policing with the support of the Home Office in October 2025.Bringing together expertise from across policing, the private sector, academia, the military and politics, we have heard from thousands of officers, staff and members of the public through our force visits, call for evidence, survey work, roundtables and focus groups. Our work has covered the entirety of the policing workforce, including officers, staff and volunteers working at all levels.
We have seen outstanding examples of leadership and delivery across policing, often in the most challenging circumstances.
— Read on www.college.police.uk/police-leadership-commission/police-leadership-commission-report
Get the full PDF report HERE
2009–2025Contact Cards in Cincinnati A Review of Racial Bias in Police Stops,
Twenty-five years after the killing of Timothy Thomas sparked a citywide reckoning with police accountability in Cincinnati, a new Campaign Zero analysis reveals that racially biased policing has not only persisted — it has deepened. Drawing on over 472,000 police contact cards filed between 2009 and 2025, our report Contact Cards in Cincinnati documents what the data makes undeniable: Cincinnati Police officers stopped Black people 3.4 times more often than White people in 2025, searched them at twice the rate, and were nearly twice as likely to use force against them once stopped. These disparities exist across every neighborhood, every stop type, and every outcome measured — and they are getting worse, not better.
Website HERE
Copy of the report HERE
Recruitment and Retention – Challenges for Pennsylvania Police, Corrections, and Prosecutors
Assessing “Reasonable” Police Uses of Force After Barnes v. Felix: How Time Framing Affects Public Perceptions – Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams, Kyle McLean, Seth Stoughton, Geoffrey P. Alpert, 2026
Note at the time of this posting the article was available “open access”.
Assessing “Reasonable” Police Uses of Force After Barnes v. Felix: How Time Framing Affects Public Perceptions
— Read on journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10986111261462411
Future of Policing 