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The LEAD Program Faces a Reckoning for Centering Police

Helen Redmond

September 17, 2020 |

Filter |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The LEAD program (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion), which was launched in Seattle in 2011 and is used in such cities as Atlanta, Los Angeles, Portland, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, provides intensive case management and services to people who come in contact with police and qualify to have their low-level cases bypass the criminal justice system. LEAD has been shown to lower recidivism by half and to make it more likely that people with drug and mental health, and other problems can find housing and jobs more easily. But this critical analysis argues that the police should not serve as gatekeepers.

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Unreasonable suspicion: When residents call police, who pays the price when bias shapes their concerns?

Natalie Yahr

September 16, 2020 |

The Cap Times |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Monona, Wisconsin

When the police got called to check on a "suspicious" Black man at the door of a house in a mostly white suburb of Madison, they held him at gun point until he convinced them he was there with the owner's permission. The resulting public outrage has turned into a search for solutions. While the city pays for a study of its policies and questions the adequacy of its implicit-bias training of police officers and 911 operators, neighborhood groups are working to educate residents about alternatives to calling police for all but the most serious threats to safety.

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Drink. Drive. Lose your job with BCSO: Sheriff says it's that simple.

Dillon Collier

September 15, 2020 |

KSAT-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, San Antonio, Texas

After two dozen of his deputies were arrested in 2018, many of them for drunken driving, the Bexar County sheriff imposed stricter rules, firing people for DWI offenses and barring them from future employment at the agency. He also began offering alcohol abuse treatment, to address the problem before it turns into an arrest. Since the start of 2020, only one deputy has been arrested on DWI charges.

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As call for police reform grows here, some look to Oregon for possible answers

Beth Adams

September 15, 2020 |

City Newspaper (Rochester) |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

Protests over police officers' conduct in the death of Daniel Prude prompted Rochester, N.Y., officials to look to Eugene's CAHOOTS program for an alternative model in responding to mental health crises. But CAHOOTS officials caution that their longstanding practice of dispatching mental health counselors as first responders, in place of police, has resulted in a safer, more caring response only because the agency is part of a broader system of social services. CAHOOTS teams are on call 24/7, replacing police on up to 8% of 911 calls and calling for police backup a fraction of the time.

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Will the Special Investigative Unit decrease gun violence in Flint?

Amy Diaz

September 15, 2020 |

Flint Beat |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Flint, Michigan

In the first full month since it was created to take illegal guns off the street, Flint's Special Investigative Unit seized 64 firearms and made dozens of arrests. The unit's predictive policing approach relies on data that tell the police where gun crimes are concentrated. Critics contend that focusing enforcement on historically high-crime areas creates a feedback loop of racially disparate policing, in that more cops in a neighborhood means more arrests, which in turn invites more enforcement. Targeted gun enforcement has a mixed record of crime reductions and racial inequities.

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Policing the Police 2020

Jelani Cobb

September 15, 2020 |

PBS Frontline |

Documentary |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Newark, New Jersey

Revisiting Newark police reform six years after an earlier documentary, and after federal intervention, signs of progress provide hope in a year of unrest over police misconduct nationwide. Policies and training were overhauled, civilian oversight was imposed, albeit with limitations. Public trust edged up, and the police claim an increase in use-of-force incidents is due to better compliance with reporting requirements. Violence is down, with more use of community-based prevention instead of just policing. But the root causes of racial disparities remain, unable to be solved just by improving policing.

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In Denver, This Program Helps Reroute 911 Calls To Police Alternatives

Scott Simon

September 12, 2020 |

NPR |

Radio |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

In its first three months of existence, Denver's STAR program sent medics and counselors to respond to more than 600 calls to 911 in place of the police and without ever having to call the police as backup in a violent confrontation. The calls dealt mainly with complaints about unhoused people who callers complained were trespassing. Instead of the police approach, which often is to see such people as a threat, the STAR team sees them as people needing help. Such calls diverted from police end up connecting people with necessary social services and avoid possible violence or unnecessary incarceration.

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Spy planes provide modest help to Baltimore crime fight over three months, researchers find

Tim Prudente

September 11, 2020 |

The Baltimore Sun |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

After three months of a pilot project putting video-equipped planes in flight over Baltimore, police made arrests in 21% of the 81 cases in which video evidence was provided. The arrest rate is slightly greater than in the many more cases that were not aided by aerial video. But researchers and police have not concluded from the evidence that the project is effective enough to continue after its six-month, privately funded run. Civil liberties advocates have challenged use of the so-called spy planes, which the city hopes will help combat its high rate of homicides and other violent crimes.

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Portland's High Stakes Experiment to Shrink the Role of Police in Fighting Gun Violence

Casey Parks

September 10, 2020 |

The Trace |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

Two years after reorganizing a police gun-enforcement unit to focus it on an evidence-based approach to preventing retaliatory shootings, Portland city leaders abolished the unit in a round of police budget cuts and failed to reinvest that money in community-based alternatives that don't rely on the police. The result, criminologists say, is a worst-case scenario: a policing reform that creates a vacuum and could be to blame for an alarming spike in gun violence. The most effective solutions, they say, blend effective policing with proven community-based programs.

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NYPD Study: Implicit Bias Training Changes Minds, Not Necessarily Behavior

Martin Kaste

September 10, 2020 |

NPR |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

After all 36,000 New York Police Department officers took required training in recognizing implicit racial bias, more officers understood how racism may increase officers' aggressiveness but there was no evidence that this awareness translated into a less racially disparate outcome in the numbers of people stopped and frisked. Since the protests of police bias that started in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, most states have imposed mandatory implicit-bias training on police. NYPD's study is a rare measurement of the effects such training can have.

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