SpotCrime Weekly Reads: predictive policing, racial bias, violent crime

Predictive policing turns into harassment, racial bias in policing, increase in gun violence, 2019 BJS criminal victimization survey findings, body cam transparency, and more...Subscribe to SpotCrime's Weekly Reads by signing up for a free SpotCrime email crime alert or heading over to our Substack.

POLICE CONDUCT

Pasco County Sheriff launched an algorithm to predict who might commit a crime. Dozens of people said they were harassed by deputies for no reason. (Business Insider)

Race, policing, and the universal yearning for safety Phillip Atiba Goff explains what we know — and don’t know — about racial bias in policing. (Vox)

How is Defunding the Police Going in Minneapolis? (Marginal Revolution)

2 LA County deputies in stable condition after being shot in Compton; search for gunman continues (ABC7)

Connecticut police chief resigns, faces federal charges of rigging his hiring (Fox News)

Why It’s Not So Simple To Arrest The Cops Who Shot Breonna Taylor (The Marshall Project)

Replacing Cops with Crisis Intervention Experts. Are crisis intervention teams more effective than police? These programs dispatch trained behavioral health professionals as first responders, and it’s working. (Freethink Youtube)

Alexandria Police Union Calls Community Police Review Board ‘Superfluous’ (ALX Now)

CRIME RATE

Virginia bill looks to make false 911 calls based on discrimination a hate crime (WAVY)

Effect of public housing redevelopment on reported and perceived crime in a Seattle neighborhood (Springer Link)

Transitioning Out of an Urban Domestic Violence Emergency Shelter: Voices of Survivors (Sage Pub Journals)

Contextualizing Firearms in Mass Shooting Incidents: A Study of Guns, Regulations, and Outcomes (Taylor and Francis Online)

2019 Criminal Victimization Survey Results from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS.gov)

LAPD Chief Moore points to pandemic as driving factor in increased gun violence, killings (LA Times) see also: At least 46 shot, including 12 who died, in Baltimore during eight-day stretch of surging violence (Baltimore Sun) and also: Dothan police are asking community's help to curb rising gun violence (Dothan Eagle)

CRIM-TECH

Study: Spy Planes Provide Modest Help to Baltimore’s Crime Fight (Officer.com)

Criminal intelligence databases may seem unobjectionable in an era of facial recognition and predictive policing. But they are deeply flawed, too. (Slate)

Study: Spy Planes Provide Modest Help to Baltimore’s Crime Fight. The controversial surveillance planes circling above Baltimore proved slight aid to crime fight in first three months, detectives arrest at rate about 5 percentage points higher. (Officer.com)

Things to Know Before Your Neighborhood Installs an Automated License Plate Reader (EFF.org)

The ABC’s (algorithms, big tech and cops) of predictive policing and surveillance (The Star)

POLICE TRANSPARENCY

Feds slap UC Berkeley with $2.35 million fine for failing to disclose campus crimes properly (San Francisco Chronicle)

Power to the People: Mapping and Information-Sharing in the Chicago Police Department (Academia.edu)

After pledging transparency, BCSO fights to block release of body cam video in shooting of Damien Daniels Sheriff Javier Salazar called himself ‘a big proponent of transparency’ days after shooting (KSAT)

THE PRISON SYSTEM

Conviction, Imprisonment, and Lost Earnings: How Involvement with the Criminal Justice System Deepens Inequality (Brennan Center for Justice)

Progressive DAs form new alliance to combat ‘tough-on-crime’ orgs (San Francisco Chronicle) 

DUMB CRIMINAL OF THE WEEK

Cass County, Texas Attorney Guilty of Smuggling Methamphetamine into the Cass County Jail (TXK Today)

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