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Showing posts with the label transparency

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Crime rate, crim-tech, oversight

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Police reform, NY police misconduct records, regional crime data, mental health, Baltimore gun violence transparency, clearance rates, relationship between climate and crime, facial surveillance, robot bomb dog, AI for report writing, gunshot detection, police drones, license plate readers, AI use in non emergency calls, real time crime centers, speed cameras, FOIA, facial recognition transparency, LMPD oversight, after prison, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Savannah mayor backs police reform, addresses crime criticism from Georgia AG  (WJCL) Our 5-year fight to publish NY's police misconduct records, and what we've found so far  (Democrat and Chronicle) Official: Texas authorities illegally access Illinois data to locate woman who had abortion  (The State Journal Register) LAPD is illegally sharing license plate data with ICE and Border Patrol  (LA Public Press)  see also:  FOIA records reveal Evanston data accessible to out-of-state police making ICE searches...

Baltimore Says Shootings Are Down. But Their New Crime Feed Makes It Harder to See Them

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In 2025, the Baltimore Police Department updated its public crime data, switching from the old UCR Part I system to the more detailed NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System) . The change was part of a national push for more comprehensive crime reporting. But in Baltimore’s case, one critical data point has effectively vanished from public view: shootings. In 2024, Shootings Were Easy to Find Even though “shooting” isn’t a standard UCR Part I crime type, Baltimore took the extra step of listing it as a distinct incident category in its 2024 public data feed. That decision gave residents, journalists, researchers, and advocates a powerful tool to track gun violence directly. No guesswork or complicated filtering required. It was a simple but effective act of transparency. But now it’s gone. In 2025, the Shooting Category Vanishes The 2025 NIBRS-format feed dropped the Shooting category, making it hard to track shootings. The public-facing feed no longer includes a clear way to ...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Automated license plate readers, police budgets, violent crime

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Police budgets, police accountability boards, juvenile criminal offenses, violent crime rate in the US, AI in law enforcement, phone data location data used in court, automate license plate readers, body cam funding, facial recognition use on the rise, legislation to improve police transparency, FOIA, prisoner review boards, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Lehi police asking city for additional million dollars to grow department  (KJZZ) Rochester Police Accountability Board Loses Investigatory Powers  (New York Focus) CRIME RATE ‘Killing each other’: Juvenile criminal offenses skyrocket by 100% in Durham’s quarterly crime report  (Queen City News) Something remarkable is happening with violent crime rates in the US  (Vox) see also:  Could 2025 See the Lowest Murder Rate Ever Recorded?  (Reason) Prince George’s Co. police say crime is down again this year, and here’s how they’ll plan for the summer  (WTOP) Data broker LexisNexis discloses data breach affecti...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Crime rate, AI, crime data

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Crime investigations stop in St Louis County, new software to change policing, notifications about child abuse on military bases, crime data, crime free lease movement, crime rate, internet crimes, using DNA to identify suspects face, predictive policing and AI, police drones, surveillance, license plate readers, police transparency, parole, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Crime investigations stop in St. Louis County due to judicial decision  (Northern News Now) New dispatch software could change policing in The Dalles  (NCW Life) At least 4 Florida deputies fired after body cam cover-up during out-of-county arrest  (WSVN) DOD should fix parent notifications about alleged child abuse, IG says  (Military Times) CRIME RATE Crime reporting in Ithaca: A tale of two hills Public safety for students can look different depending on whether they are living on or off campus.  (Ithaca Week) This Arizona officer launched a crime-free lease movement. Now, he says his legacy is ...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Police conduct, reducing crime, crim-tech

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Chief honored for leadership, citizen police oversight commission, using military in domestic operations, Justice Department cutting grants to help crime victims, police exemptions from deadly conduct charges in Texas, new tool for community feedback, organized crime and corruption reporting, hoax calls, deepfake legislation passed to protect victims of NCII, LED streetlights help reduce crime, leveraging tech for safer communities, Rochester new measure of public safety, data on prison deaths, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Elgin police chief honored nationally for leadership through progressive policing  (Daily Herald) Citizens Police Oversight Commission Releases Annual Report Highlighting Progress Toward Police Accountability, Transparency, and Community Trust  (City of Philadelphia) Bondi and Hegseth ordered to look at how military can be used in domestic operations  (The Independent) see also:  Trump’s New Order on Policing Seems Sweeping. But What Will It Really 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 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...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Gun violence, robot dogs, transparency

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Kansas police gun sales, public libraries crime mitigation, violence alters human genomes, gun violence and gun data, red flag laws, police robot dogs, automated report writing, license plate cameras, body cam market shift, police misconduct files transparency, prison, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Kansas police could sell, give away guns seized without criminal convictions under Senate bill  (Kansas Reflector) Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig explores running for Detroit mayor  (The Detroit News) CRIME RATE Do public libraries help mitigate crime? Evidence from Kansas City, MO  (Ideas.repec.org) Violence alters human genomes for generations, researchers discover  (University of Florida) Georgia Crime Victims Oppose Governor’s Bill to Limit Lawsuit Damages  (Governing) Can Enhanced Street Lighting Improve Public Safety at Scale?  (SSRN) State, county officials meet to discuss gun violence and ways to make communities safer  (WFMZ) What the data say...

LAPD’s Open Crime Data Crisis: A Step Backward for Transparency

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Los Angeles, one of the largest cities in the U.S., has long provided public access to crime data through its open data portal. However, a troubling shift has been unfolding, raising serious concerns about transparency, public safety awareness, and accountability. The LAPD’s transition to a new Records Management System (RMS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has resulted in significant gaps in crime data reporting, with updates becoming increasingly sporadic or ceasing altogether. The Problem: Crime Data No Longer Updating Regularly Historically, LAPD updated its crime data feed on a weekly basis but changed to biweekly updates in early 2024 . However, as of early 2025, the department appears to have stopped updating its primary dataset entirely. The most recent available crime data from the “Crime Data from 2020 to Present” dataset stopped at December 30, 2024 , but has since resumed biweekly updates. However, these updates now contain only a few incidents p...

SpotCrime Weekly Reads: Police chief searches, crime rate, prison

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Data driven policing, police chief departure, police transparency, nonviolence work, crime stats, youth-related crime, mask wearing defendants, sanctuary cities and crime, murder rate, police cameras, AI and policing, police chief search, privatizing prison food service, women in prison, and more... POLICE CONDUCT Urbana Police Chief lays out ‘data driven policing’  (WCIA) OIG pens letter to New Orleans Police Department publicizing inaccurate crime stats reporting  (WGNO) CRIME RATE The Untold Impact of Nonviolence Work: How Success Gets Measured in Chicago’s Hardest-Hit Neighborhoods  (WTTW) Youth-related crime continues to be an issue for Cincinnati, CPD report says  (Fox19) US Justice Dept demands data on criminal cases involving mask-wearing defendants  (Reuters) UNM research shows no correlation between sanctuary cities and crime  (UNM News) Jackson State experts weigh in on Jackson murder rate the past 5 years. See the numbers  (Clarion Ledger) ...