The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/policing/)
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz activated the National Guard to help restore peace after days of furor over a video showing a white police officer holding his knee on the neck of a George Floyd, who later died.
The brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police has re-energized a debate over misconduct by law enforcement officials that the Supreme Court may re-enter. The justices may choose to hear one or more pending cases challenging “qualified immunity” for officers.
Did U.S. police cut back on arrests following the “Black Lives Matter” protests over the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.? Was that why homicides spiked the following year? Two criminologists say the answer to both questions is “no.”
Anger and grief over the death of George Floyd erupted Wednesday night outside the third precinct headquarters of the Minneapolis Police Department, including vandalism and looting, while more peaceful demonstrations took place elsewhere in the area. One man was killed and a suspect was arrested.
Police chiefs across the U.S., many of whom have pushed officers to de-escalate tense situations and decrease use of force, moved to reassure their communities that they would not tolerate the kind of brutality that killed George Floyd.
Ford created a “heated sanitation software” that allows police to heat vehicles beyond 133 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes to eliminate the coronavirus.
A study of 8,480 Chicago cops who went through the training between 2012 and 2016 shows they received fewer civilian complaints than non-trained colleagues. The study authors say their findings support strategies for restoring police legitimacy—and effectiveness—in at-risk communities.
Four Minneapolis police officers involved in the arrest of a black man who died in custody were dismissed after a bystander’s video showed an officer kneeling on the handcuffed man’s neck, even after he pleaded that he could not breathe.
“We have to do better. We cannot have weekends in the summer turn into a bloodbath,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot, blaming Police Superintendent David Brown for a “fail.”
Cops who are fired for misconduct are likely to repeat the same offense if they get a second law enforcement job, according to a Yale study. The risks to communities posed by these so-called “wandering officers” could be addressed with a reinforced national database of decertified officers, accompanied by stricter state record-keeping, say the study authors.