To Solve 3 Cold Cases, This Small County Got a DNA Crash Course

Virginia Hughes

May 03, 2021 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kentland, Indiana

Genetic genealogy's use in criminal cases has gone mainstream. As the cases of three murder victims in Indiana illustrate, the science of DNA evidence combined with genealogical research and detective work is rapidly ramping up, from a hobby to a curiosity and now to a major commercial and criminal-justice opportunity. Hundreds of missing persons have been identified from decades-old remains, or murder suspects identified from old biological evidence in cold cases. By creating a family tree of the victim or suspect, investigators can zero in on an identity more quickly and inexpensively than ever.

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‘The fight has to change': Why Ferguson activists ditched police reform

Rebecca Rivas

May 03, 2021 |

Missouri Independent |

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Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

Decades of advocacy for more effective civilian oversight of police-misconduct investigations in St. Louis finally resulted in a new oversight board created in the wake of the death of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson. But that board has been rendered a "total failure" because the police found ways to keep steering investigations to their secret, internal investigative office and preventing prosecutors from working independently on investigations. A new mayor and a sympathetic prosecuting attorney promise to fix the structural flaws that have let the police continue to investigate themselves.

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Outreach officers treat homelessness as a symptom, not a crime

Stephanie Casanova

May 01, 2021 |

Arizona Daily Star |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

Tucson Police Department's Homeless Outreach Team operates on the premise that even though many want to see police excluded from any role in dealing with homelessness, residents still call 911 and demand a police response. So the team, working with the city's homeless services counselors, can usually turn such contacts into an offer of help. Its officers are trained more and have more time than patrol officers to talk to people and determine their needs. Tucson's unhoused population surged in 2020, and police helped hundreds get housed or get other services without resorting to arrests and jail.

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Police visit patients, offer rides to mental health treatment

Stephanie Casanova

April 30, 2021 |

Arizona Daily Star |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

When people refuse mental health care while under court orders to get treatment, Tucson police send a mental health support team to take the people to crisis observation clinics or hospitals. The teams have the training and extra time that regular patrol officers often lack, so that such calls can result in a peaceful transport to get the person help, rather than to jail or ending in violence. Having the police involved at all poses policy questions that agencies wrestle with. But thousands of people per year are getting transported to places providing care instead of punishment.

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Officers try to break stigma, offer help to drug users

Stephanie Casanova

April 29, 2021 |

Arizona Daily Star |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

Tucson Police Department's Substance Use Resource Team reaches out on the streets to people with substance-use disorder, offering them treatment instead of arrest and jail. The team is an extension of the department's mental health support team and was started in response to the opioid epidemic. Officers talk to people they find on the streets, or follow up on 911 calls for overdoses. Not everyone accepts the offered help, and some end up arrested on warrants. But, at a time of rising overdose deaths, the officers and the peer support specialists who accompany them often can get people into treatment.

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How a US strategy is helping gang members in Malmö turn their lives around

Anne Grietje Franssen

April 29, 2021 |

The Local |

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Response Location: Sweden, Malmö

When drug-gang violence reached intolerable levels in Malmö in 2017, Swedish crime prevention officials traveled to New York for tips. There they learned about a gang violence intervention strategy in which gang members are summoned to a meeting with law enforcement, community, and social-services representatives. They are told about the harm they are causing, are offered help in changing their lifestyle, and are warned that they will be prosecuted otherwise. In Malmö since then, hundreds heard that message, dozens accepted the help, and violence dropped significantly year after year.

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They answer the call when people are in crisis

Gino Fanelli

April 29, 2021 |

City Newspaper (Rochester) |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Rochester, New York

Following the death of Daniel Prude in Rochester police custody, the city consulted with the operators of Eugene's CAHOOTS program to craft its own version of a team of unarmed responders to help resolve mental health or substance abuse crises without the use of violence. Rochester's Person In Crisis (PIC) team has averaged about 21 calls per day since January. All calls are made with the police in tandem, unlike CAHOOTS' model. Some violent incidents in Rochester have raised questions about PIC's ability to defuse conflict. But the operators say they have begun to make a positive difference.

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When communities try to hold police accountable, law enforcement fights back

Nicole Dungca Jenn Abelson

April 27, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Albuquerque, New Mexico

A favorite remedy for systemic police misconduct is a civilian oversight agency. More than 160 cities and counties have such agencies, some at the insistence of the U.S. Justice Department. But, as Albuquerque and multiple other cities have shown, a common set of factors often undermine the effectiveness of such agencies. These factors start with structural defects, limiting the agencies' independent investigatory and disciplinary powers, and extend to strenuous opposition from police unions and their political allies.

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CSI Houston: How a Texas lab has remade the science of forensics

Henry Gass

April 23, 2021 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

One of the first crime-lab scandals gave birth to a better way of ensuring the integrity and accuracy of forensic evidence. The Houston Forensic Science Center operates independently of law enforcement agencies, with a large staff of scientists and a healthy budget to correct some of the resource-related flaws of its police-run predecessor. Perhaps its greatest innovation is a system of regularly running blind tests as a quality check, to make sure the staff stays vigilant. The goal is to avoid the kinds of bad science that often contribute to wrongful convictions and other injustices.

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A Fatal Police Shooting in Lents Was the Nightmare Portland Officials Tried to Prevent

Tess Riski

April 21, 2021 |

Willamette Week |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

After the U.S. Justice Department found that Portland police used excessive force too often when dealing with people in mental health crises, the city formed an unarmed mobile crisis team and a team of police officers with extra training in such cases. Neither team was used when a man with a history of mental illness, armed with what turned out to be a toy gun, was shot to death by a police officer. The Portland Street Response team was not called because the incident occurred outside its limited working hours during the team's pilot phase.

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