SpotCrime - The Public's Crime Map

Communities highlight need for crime prevention, USCs troubling delay in reporting crime, police traffic stops, inside gun detection software, Tesla police cars tested in Spokane, using tech to stop human trafficking, a billionaire's son border war, prison staff shortages among COVID, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Dayton to use mediation response for some nonviolent 911 calls  (Dayton Daily News) What do the Rural Folks Think? Perceptions of Police Performance  (Oxford Academic) The Demand for Money Behind Many Police Traffic Stops  (NYTimes) Central Pa. police officers fired for turning in fake COVID-19 vaccination cards: report  (PennLive.com) LMPD youth Explorer sexual abuse lawsuits settle for more than $3 million  (WDRB) USC admits to ‘troubling delay’ in warning about fraternity drugging, sex assault reports  (LATimes) Howard Buffett's Border War: A Billionaire's Son Is Spending Millions in Cochise County  (Phoenix New Times) CRIME RATE Community me...

Police budgets are used not only to hire officers, but also to purchase tech from companies to aid in police work. Anything from body cams to surveillance tech to in-car computers to RMS/CAD systems are typically hired out to a private vendor company rather than created and maintained in house by the police departments themselves. We came across a paper by Elizabeth E Joh published at the NYU School Law Review titled ’The Undue Influence of Surveillance Technology Companies on Policing’ . Joh specifically focused on the influence surveillance companies have over police departments which adversely affects policing leaving consequences for civil liberties and police oversight. This same concept can be applied to police vendors hired to house police data in Records Management System (RMS) and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems. These vendor systems are in charge of a trough of public data - from arrest records to body cam footage to crime blotters to use of force to police reports. Th...

Police staffing crisis, use of force, addressing violent crime, focused interruption, evaluating camera surveillance use by police, geofence warrants, body cams, crime rate, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Officials vow to increase police staffing, with available officers at historic low  (Berkeleyside.org) see also:  Chicago on pace to lose more than 1,000 officers due to resignation, retirement  (WGN) and also:  How Phoenix is handling 'crisis' police staffing situation  (KJZZ) Five times as many police officers have died from Covid-19 as from gunfire since start of pandemic  (CNN) Governor releases third-party review of state law enforcement. The report assessed curriculums, training standards, policies and practices.  (WTHR) Examining the Risk of Recurring Use of Force Incidents Among Newly Hired Police Officers  (SAGE Journals) Trainers show media the ‘other side’ of deadly shootings and use of force by police  (KETK) Tiny wrists in cuffs: Ho...

NJ cops can't be fired or promoted based on arrests, New Mexico removing police from mental health calls,  unpacking gun violence, Chicago consent decree, new company analyzes body cam audio for problem officers, 3 states begin to share gun crime data, better crime databases needed, TN kids charged with crimes that don't exist, and more... POLICE CONDUCT N.J. cops can’t be fired or promoted based on how many arrests they make under new law  (NJ.com) Washington State Patrol’s hiring under fire as agency failed to diversify over decades  (Seattle Times) State Police trooper who cried foul over brutality incidents is notified he'll be fired  (NOLA.com) Middle Georgia police officer shot, killed on his first shift  (AJC) Lynchburg Police Dept. makes staffing changes to compensate for 28 officer vacancies  (WFXR) In New Mexico, a bold experiment aims to take police out of the equation for mental health calls  (The Washington Post) New Report On Chicago Poli...

DHS commission looks at best law enforcement practices, CA law strips badges from bad officers, NYC union leader resigns,  'hunting' protestors in Minneapolis, domestic violence awareness, looking at recent FBI crime data, flawed gang database, geofence warrants, OH promises transparency in felony cases, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Columbus police to focus on gangs as part of crackdown on violence  (WBNS) St. Louis is overhauling its 911 system to fix long hold times  (STLPR) California enacts law to strip badges from bad officers  (AP News) Flagstaff City Council approves $2.5 million contract for mobile alternate response unit  (AZ Daily Sun) Fatal police violence by race and state in the USA, 1980–2019: a network meta-regression  (The Lancet) see also:  More Than Half of Police Killings Are Mislabeled, New Study Says  (New York Times) New DHS commission will look at best law enforcement practices: Mayorkas  (ABC News) Body cam footage shows...

Bipartisan talks for police reform end, tracking use-of-force not so easy, AGs address police accountability, studying the mental health of police officers, LA DA dismisses marijuana convictions, murders rose in 2020, not all agencies report data to FBI, body cams costs, police use of tech and the state of surveillance, Alabama ends open access to police records, Mary's Law in Florida hinders police transparency, will the low incarceration rate last, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Bipartisan police-overhaul talks end with no deal. lawmakers had sought to address abuses by law-enforcement after protests over killings of Black Americans  (Wall Street Journal) How is police use of force tracked in the Quad-Cities? That depends on the department.  (Quad City Times) Austin police weigh dispatching civilians, not officers to some nonemergency calls  (Austin American Statesman) Attorneys General in Three States Move to Increase Police Accountability  (TheCrimeReport.org) see al...

In 2019, we published an op-ed at the University of Florida Brechner Center Freedom of Information outlining the issues Marsy’s Law has caused in the collection of public crime information. Two years later, Marsy's Law in Florida continues to take its toll on police transparency. Many other states have implemented their own version of Marsy’s Law without creating problems related to police transparency now faced in Florida. It appears other states have found ways to discern between the intent of Marsy’s Law to protect victims rights to privacy, while also making sure the public has access to pertinent information related to crime, policing, and government transparency. Luckily since our op-ed, we have not run into any other notable police agencies using Marsy’s Law as a blanket exemption to releasing public crime blotter information. However, the original three agencies - Polk County Sheriff, Pasco County Sheriff, and Lake County Sheriff - are still not making crime blotter inform...

Re-directing no threat 911 calls, mental health unit works toward de-escalation, homicide rate surge may be over, fixing vacancies to reduce gun violence, police use virtual reality for de-escalation training, report urges transparency with internal affairs department, navigating life after incarceration, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Pilot program designed to redirect no-threat 911 calls from Columbus police showing promise, officials say  (The Columbus Dispatch) see also:  Police Aren’t Needed for 49% of 911 Calls: Seattle Report  (TheCrimeReport.org) COVID-19: Law enforcement deaths. Tracking the coronavirus-related deaths of U.S. police officers and other LE personnel  (PoliceOne) BPD's Mental Heath Unit responds to 100+ calls since its inception, works to de-escalate crisis  (KXXV) Chicago Police Department opts for go-slow approach to redeploy cops  (Chicago Sun Times) U.S. Police Academies Overemphasize “Warrior” Training of New Officers  (Academia...

We updated the SpotCrime University Transparency Ranking! The last time we ranked access to crime data at universities was in 2017. We specifically look at access to the Jeanne Clery Act crime logs . The Jeanne Clery Act passed in 1990 and in addition to annual reports and timely notices of crimes, it requires a crime log to be kept and be made available and open for public inspection during normal business hours for the most recent 60-day period. Unfortunately, the law was created before the impetus of the internet , however a majority of university police departments across the US publish their crime and fire log directly to their website. In this round of ranking we wanted to know if the transparency level of a city police department influenced the transparency level of the university police department since jurisdictions of a university police department and local police department overlap. We looked at the 10 most populated cities (New York, LA , Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philade...