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SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Violent crime, crime policy, prison

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State takes control of St. Louis police department, tough on crime policies, officer recruitment, cuts to KC Sheriff, protecting survivors of domestic abuse, cracking down on violent crime, campus crime, cybercrime partnership, complaints against police, citizen review board transparency, bottlenecks in criminal court system, AZ prison closures, and more... POLICE CONDUCT St. Louis Community Outraged as State Takes Control of Police Department  (Vanguard News Group) JSO allows officers to carry personal Staccato handguns instead of department-issued Glocks Safety analyst sees no issue with JSO approving use of different gun, says it can ‘boost confidence, effectiveness’  (News4Jax) DOD stops offering rape kits to most overseas civilian workers  (Military Times) D.C. Public Safety Executive Order Revives Failed “Tough-on-Crime” Policies, Ignores Proven Solutions  (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) Memphis Shelby Crime Commission aims to recruit officers, deter c...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: AI, mental health, gun violence

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Mental health responders, radio encryption, child exploitation, fatal and nonfatal shootings comparisons, Mexico City crime, EverShot, gun violence, Dallas response times, DOJ report on AI, AI or non-emergency calls, police military equipment, Charlotte schools withhold sexual assault data, data in criminal justice, and more... POLICE CONDUCT As state slashes mental health funding, Tulsa adds 911 clinicians to divert crisis calls  (Public Radio Tulsa) Police scanners in Minneapolis fall silent as MPD encrypts radio traffic  (MPR News) CRIME RATE Child sexual exploitation and abuse is a multibillion-dollar industry – new report shows who benefits  (The Conversation) Leveraging the National Incident-based Reporting System to compare fatal and nonfatal shooting incidents  (Taylor & Francis Online) see also:  EveryShot is a publicly available data tool that tracks gun violence incidents in the United States using AI to parse news stories about gun violence. ...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: AI in policing, image based sexual abuse, radio encryption

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Oakland 911 answer times improving, reasons for traffic stops, police surveillance, police shortage in Philadelphia, image based sexual abuse, deepfake criminalization legislation, truancy and violent crime, ghost guns, police radio encryption, AI to predict crime, AI to write police reports, Ohio new body cam video charges, rethinking girls' incarceration, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Oakland's 911 answer times are improving, according to state data  (NbC Bay Area) Here are the top 10 reasons police gave for traffic stops in Fresno and Clovis  (The Fresno Bee) Tulsa’s surveillance gamble  (The Frontier) It Will Take 'Years of Momentum' to Fix Philadelphia's Cop Shortage  (Governing) Did Colorado lawmakers try to bar police from asking, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”  (The Colorado Sun) Chicago expanding program to allow police officers to file felony gun charges without review by prosecutors  (CBS News) CRIME RATE How The Media Is ‘Economically Exploit...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Police conduct, surveillance, AI

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Police staffing, five years after George Floyd, recording police, ICE, misconduct records, NIBRS switch slows access to crime data, social media and crime trends, solving hit and runs, child deepfake and sextortion incidents, AI crime, gunshot detection, surveillance camera network, automated license plate readers, predictive policing, tech and police transparency, body cams, New Jersey expungement, and more... POLICE CONDUCT New Jersey police chief accused of defecating on floor to harass co-workers  (The Guardian) Staffing and Data Needs Hold Center Stage at Second Shasta County Public Safety Meeting  (Shasta Scout) The State of Policing, Five Years After George Floyd  (GovTech) Beaumont police chief highlights community safety efforts and crime prevention  (12 News Now) “A Wholly Inaccurate Picture”: Reality Cop Show “The First 48” and the Wrongly Convicted Man  (ProPublica) Tia Lewis: Right To Record Cops Is Vital Because No One Is Above The Law  (Honol...

Is the Shift to NIBRS Slowing Down Public Access to Crime Data?

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In recent years, the transition from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has been hailed as a major upgrade in crime data collection. NIBRS offers more granular, detailed reporting compared to UCR’s summary-based approach. But while the benefits sound promising on paper, in practice we’re seeing a troubling side effect: timely, block level incident crime data is slowing down—or disappearing entirely—from public view and access. Is NIBRS to Blame? The NIBRS transition is not the only factor, but it's a significant one. Unlike UCR, which focused on counting major offenses, NIBRS demands more detail and structure. That means departments must invest in costly software upgrades, retrain staff, and restructure internal workflows. These changes introduce delays—and in some cases, departments decide it's easier to stop releasing data altogether rather than deal with the complexity. Adding to the issue is that many of th...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Transparency, police reform, ghost guns

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Police chief transparency, the future of police reform, police profiling, officer training, five years after Breonna Taylor's death, fight against gun violence showing promise, ghost gun bans, navigating predictive policing challenges, drone policies, body cams, future proofing justice, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Their police chiefs were forced out. Now these residents want transparency  (Las Vegas Review Journal) Trump Is Backing Away From Police Reform. Here’s What That Means for 12 Places.  (The Marshall Project) Assaults on NYPD officers have skyrocketed in subways, MTA says  (Gothamist) N.J. police chief accused of turning department into 'Animal House'  (NBC News) Akron residents concerned about safety, police profiling. Here's how we can fix it | Opinion  (Akron Beacon Journal) Eye On Safety: Moore Police Chief addresses officer training after stunning body cam footage  (News on 6) Five Years After Breonna Taylor’s Death, What’s Changed?  (Essen...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Police chief conduct, crime rate, police cameras

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Henderson police chief fired, Columbus underreported crime, smart policing, holistic approach to crime, high risk violent offenders, body cam footage fees, predictive analytics, crime data in social media, automated license plate readers, asset forfeiture, trust in community police interactions, prison, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Henderson police chief fired after ultimatum  (8 News Now) Maui police chief named in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs lawsuit as alleged co-conspirator  (Hawaii News Now) Columbus police’s underreported crime data taking longer to fix than expected  (NBC4) The Smart Policing Initiative: 15 Years of Evidence-Based Innovation in Policing Practice  (Taylor and Francis Online) CRIME RATE A Holistic Approach to Explaining Crime  (Taylor and Francis Online) 'This narrative that Austin is dangerous is not accurate' | Police chief pushes back against bill to extend DPS enforcement downtown  (KVUE) Policing High-Risk Violent Offenders: Smart Policing in...