SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Crime rate, AI, prison deals

De-escalation tactics, CA police misconduct database, Honolulu police chief quits, disbanding police departments, murder plunge, crime drop, drop in shootings, SNAP disbursement and crime incidence, live facial recognition deployment, police drones, predictive crime, big data and generative AI, crime data transparency, how many people die in custody, prisons ink deals with ICE, and more...

POLICE CONDUCT

Spokane Police Chief Hall discusses officer-involved shootings, de-escalation tactics and city crime data (KHQ)

California police misconduct records now available in public database (Cal Matters)

Ithaca police officer consistently broke rules. Then he sued his union for racial bias. (Observer Dispatch)

Former Honolulu Police Chief Says Mayor’s Threats Led Him To Quit (Honolulu Civil Beat)

Wisconsin village considers disbanding police department, contracting with county (Wisconsin Public Radio)

CRIME RATE

Murder Officially Plunged in 2024 That and more takeaways from the FBI's 2024 Reported Crime in the Nation report. (Jeff-alytics)

CPD Data Shows Steep Drop in Shootings, Homicides in Neighborhoods Where ShotSpotter Was Removed: Analysis (WTTW)

Unsolicited Packages Containing QR Codes Used to Initiate Fraud Schemes (FBI IC3)

Timing of SNAP disbursement and crime incidence in the United States (Wiley Online Library)

Erie police release first half of 2025 crime stats, marks drop in violent crime (YourErie.com)

Louisville police says new unit has contributed to city's drop in shootings (WDRB)  

CRIM-TECH

Metropolitan Police to Expand Live Facial Recognition Deployments Across London (ID Tech Wire)

Bismarck, N.D., Police Chief Hopes to Increase AI, Drone Use (GovTech) see also: Anne Arundel County Police Department Expands Drone Program to Enhance Community and Officer Safety (AACounty.org)

Predictive Crime Analytics Integrating Big Data with Generative AI (Springer Nature Link)

POLICE TRANSPARENCY

Skeptical about public safety data? Learn how to find and understand the numbers yourself (WVXU)

City council addresses transparency questions in Fort Worth police chief hiring (Fox 4 KDFW)

THE PRISON SYSTEM

Why Doesn’t the U.S. Government Know How Many People Die in Custody? (The Marshall Project)

The Good Things We Could Do With Our Closed Prisons (Governing)

ICE finds violations at Folkston detention center but continues to contract with The GEO Group (The Current) see also: Anti-Immigrant Agenda Means “Unprecedented Growth Opportunities” for GEO Group On the company’s earnings call, one participant congratulated executives on “the positive news.” (Truthout)

Indiana’s state police, prisons and more ink immigration enforcement agreements with ICE (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

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