The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/)
A redesigned New York City program aimed at helping at-risk youth learn work ethics and job skills while performing community service in their neighborhoods helped divert hundreds of young people from further involvement in the justice system, says a report released today.
Special prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes charged patrol officers Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney and detective David March with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and official misconduct. Holmes accused the trio of filing false accounts of the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald to keep officer Jason Van Dyke from being accused of any wrongdoing.
The Dallas Morning News traces how many media reports wrongly said that 4.2 percent of U.S. children witnessed a shooting in the past year.
Alabama must provide both immediate and long-term fixes in its mental health care for inmates, says U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson in a case brought by mentally ill prisoners.
Seattle has won praise for its training of police officers to deal with people in mental-health crises, but it’s still not clear whether officers who killed Charleena Lyles on June 18 deviated from what they had been told to do in such cases.
Defense seeks to dismiss the case against former University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing after learning that the jury was leaning towards an acquittal before a mistrial was declared.
New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board said 794 of the 4,426 complaints it closed last year included video evidence, an increase from just 43 closed complaints with video evidence out a 4,268 total in 2012.
Bill to be signed by Gov. Tom Wolf gives police departments broad discretion over when to refuse requests from people for copies of police audio and video recordings. Law enforcement organizations support the measure. It was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says it will be nearly impossible for the public to obtain police video.
Milwaukee’s Precious Lives Project produced a 100-part weekly series covering youth violence, including its cost to taxpayers and a search for solutions.
Ukraine’s prime minister called yesterday’s cyberattack — which targeted government workstations, power companies, banks, state-run TV stations, airports and ATMs — “unprecedented” in scope. The so-called Petya attack reboots victims’ computers, encrypts their hard drive’s master file and renders their entire hard drive inoperable. The ransom request, $300 in bitcoin, “doesn’t seem consistent with state-sponsored attackers,” says one expert.
President Trump and his aides repeatedly blame MS-13 gang violence on undocumented immigrants, but officials say few detained minors have gang ties.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin alleged defamation over an editorial that linked the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) to an ad circulated by Palin that put Democratic districts in crosshairs. The Times issued a correction, saying there was no link between political rhetoric and the shooting of former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ).
In 2008 Sandra Hutchens vowed to be a “change agent” and clean house in the Orange County, Ca., Sheriff’s Department. Nearly a decade later, facing mounting criticism over her department’s handling of jailhouse informants and the brazen escape by inmates last year, she announced she will not seek re-election.
The judges unanimously upheld a state law that prisoners deemed dangerous can be held at a secure mental health facility after completion of their criminal sentences.
The US Sentencing Commission’s quarterly report shows a decrease in the total number of criminal cases since 2016, despite a slight uptick in the last quarter which appears to be driven by immigration offenses. Immigration and drug crimes made up over 62% of criminal cases in the U.S. between October 2016 and March 2017, with firearms offenses a distant second at 11.8%.