All about Policing with a sprinkle of Criminal Justice – written by a Secret Contrarian
Overview
Since 2019, Akron Police Department (APD) officers have been involved in seven fatal 1 and seven nonfatal 2 shootings. In response to these incidents, the City of Akron issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking an independent review of APD’s use of force (UOF) policies and procedures. After a competitive selection process, the City awarded the contract to the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).
Get a PDF copy of the report HERE
“Borough Contrast: Prosecution and Court Outcomes Across New York City, 2021-2024,” analyzes how criminal legal outcomes vary across the five boroughs during the post-pandemic period (pp. 1, 4).
Below are the key highlights and trends identified in the study:
Citywide arrests surged by 62% from 2021 to 2024 (pp. 9, 14). This was driven largely by low-level offenses:
Whether a case is prosecuted depends heavily on the borough (pp. 6, 23):
The study found significant differences in how judges handle cases at arraignment (pp. 6, 31):
Access the article webpage HERE
Ger a .PDF copy of the article HERE
Data extracted from records of tickets on file with NYS DMV. The tickets were issued to motorists for violations of: NYS Vehicle & Traffic Law (VTL), Thruway Rules and Regulations, Tax Law, Transportation Law, Parks and Recreation Regulations, Local New York City Traffic Ordinances, and NYS Penal Law pertaining to the involvement of a motor vehicle in acts of assault, homicide, manslaughter and criminal negligence resulting in injury or death.
Read more HERE
This is the direct link to the data HERE
Each year, more than 40,000 people are killed and more than 2 million injured in preventable car crashes. Despite a growing body of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of common-sense infrastructural and road design measures, traffic safety strategies in this country have largely focused instead on individual enforcement through high-volume police stops and ticketing. The report finds that this approach fails to prevent injuries and deaths from car crashes and in fact puts people at risk of harmful encounters with police. Ticketing practices that prioritize revenue generation over road safety also trap millions of people in inescapable cycles of fines, fees, and debt.
See more here: https://www.aclu.org/documents/safe-roads-for-all
Get a .PDF of the report HERE
Releasing 12,000 shoplifters shows limits of progressive policing
— Read on unherd.com/newsroom/releasing-12000-shoplifters-shows-limits-of-progressive-policing/
The findings come as photos and videos of aggressive law enforcement have dominated headlines and social media.
— Read on timesofsandiego.com/crime/2026/04/04/fatal-police-violence-may-have-declined-for-the-first-time-in-years/
Two landmark studies on the Chicago Police Department just dropped. Here’s what they revealed.
To read The Last Word article “How to bring professional excellence to the Chicago Police Department” copy and paste the link below:
— Read on www.thelastward.org/p/how-to-bring-professional-excellence
To get the Chicago PD “Workforce Allocation Study” and “Community Policing Study”click HERE
For the specific .PDF versions:
Community Policing Assessment Executive Summary
A post on X that went viral recently laid out a series of statistics about the percentage of serious crimes — murder, rape, robbery, assault, and so on — that are committed by people with prior arrests. All hovered between 60 percent and 79 percent. The post’s conclusion: “You can incarcerate your way out of crime. Facts.” Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, amplified the post to his hundreds of millions of followers and sharpened the point: “Either incarcerate or innocent people suffer.” To date, these two posts have nearly 50 million views each.
The claims in these posts are worth unpacking. First, Musk uses the correct metric: Reducing the suffering of innocent people is the proper goal of any criminal justice system, and public safety policy should be evaluated primarily by that standard. Musk is also correct in an important, albeit limited, sense: Failing to incapacitate genuinely dangerous people will lead to some level of crime and suffering that would have otherwise been avoided.
— Read on www.niskanencenter.org/we-cant-incarcerate-our-way-out-of-crime-but-we-can-deter-a-lot-more-of-it/
BJS has released two reports that provide insight into violent and property crime in the United States and describe the magnitude, nature, and impact of crime in the nation.
Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 presents national and subnational estimates of crime offenses and victimizations for violent and property crime. Findings in this report, the second in an annual series, are based on BJS’s and the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Estimation Program. NIBRS collects detailed information on crime incidents reported to law enforcement throughout the United States.
— Read on content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDOJOJP_COMMS/bulletins/40e7eb5
NYC crime statistics say crime is down. A second official NYPD report tells a different story. We read both. The numbers don’t agree.
— Read on whitecollarfraud.com/2026/03/26/is-nycs-reported-crime-reduction-real/
All about Policing with a sprinkle of Criminal Justice - written by a Secret Contrarian
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