What Happened When Oakland Tried to Make Police Pay for Misconduct Decades Ago In the '90s, the city passed a policy requiring the police department to pay some of their own legal costs. There’s no evidence that the department ever paid up. Akintunde Ahmad
One Rochester Cop’s Abuses Reveal A Culture of Police Impunity If Officer Matthew Drake had faced serious discipline for his misconduct, he might not have been on duty the night of Tyshon Jones’s death. Meg O'Connor
How a Troubled Police Department Is Shaping Buffalo’s Mayoral Race Citing years of police brutality and racial disparities in arrests, activists are pushing candidates to embrace reforms ahead of next week’s Democratic primaries. Raina Lipsitz
How The Twin Cities Mayors Diverge on Policing and Race While Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey faces scrutiny over policing and racial equity issues, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter has helped his city achieve progressive milestones, say lawmakers and advocates. Cinnamon Janzer
Failure To Disclose Despite a 2019 California law mandating the release of certain records related to police misconduct, law enforcement agencies in the state are still fighting records requests. Darwin BondGraham, Ali Winston
How Policing Is Shaping the Pittsburgh Mayoral Race Incumbent Bill Peduto’s policing record is under scrutiny after protests last summer. He is facing what may be his most competitive race yet. Joshua Vaughn
These Progressive Candidates Could Flip The Balance Of Power In St. Louis City Government Four first-time candidates could grant progressives a majority on the Board of Alders and transform public safety and housing policy. Eoin Higgins
‘Captain Taser’ A Vallejo police lieutenant has a long history of excessive force allegations in a department that is under investigation by the California Department of Justice—and he continues to rise in the ranks. Brian Krans
Years After Freddie Gray’s Death, Baltimore Police Misconduct Persists A new report de-anonymizes hundreds of officers in the city and shows more than 1,800 cops have had complaints filed about them. Brandon Soderberg
The Limitations of Police ‘No Chase’ Policies Two moped riders were left dead or injured after recent police pursuits in Washington, D.C., and Providence, Rhode Island. Ella Fassler
NYPD Unit At Center Of Protest Policing Has Dozens Of Officers With Long Misconduct Histories Civil liberties experts say the Strategic Response Group’s recent crackdown on ICE protests is the most brutal suppression of protests in decades—and many of its officers are the subject of significant misconduct allegations, including a supervisor with 32 complaints. Ali Winston
Communities Need And Deserve A Reset Of Policing And The Justice System. Trump Has Created A Sham Process that Excludes Them. Under the guise of restoring public confidence in law enforcement, President Trump’s secretive and regressive Commission on Law Enforcement is stacked with old-guard failed tough-on-crime thinking that precipitated the crisis of confidence we now face. Miriam Aroni Krinsky, Joe Brann
In a Small Illinois City, A Black Man Died After Officers Shoved A Baton In His Mouth. Black Officers Say They’ve Suffered At The Hands Of The Department, Too. Lawsuits from Joliet Police Department officers are among at least 12 current federal complaints against the agency. The men say their civil rights lawsuits are part of a decades-long history of discrimination. Jerry Iannelli
After Atlanta Teen Is Injured in a Police Encounter, Lawyers Call for Change The 17-year-old, who his lawyers say was pushed off a fence by a police officer, survived the fall but suffered serious injuries. Joshua Vaughn
The Defund Movement Aims to Change the Policing and Prosecution of Domestic Violence Though domestic violence is often cited as a reason to maintain the carceral status quo, advocates say there are more humane—and effective—alternatives. Jessica Pishko
Impunity for Law Enforcement Must End. That Includes Officers in Jails and Prisons. Qualified immunity is just one obstacle of many that incarcerated people face when seeking to hold correctional officers accountable for misconduct. Joshua Manson
Reimagining A Future With Less Policing Means Asking Tough Questions About the Powers We Assign To Law Enforcement As criminal justice reformers take steps to defund police departments and limit qualified immunity, it’s important to consider the role of universal and special duties in policing. Eric Kennedy
LAPD Officer Who Killed Man in Mental Health Crisis Is a Gun-Toting Social Media Star In late April, officer Toni McBride shot Daniel Hernandez to death after a suicide call. His attorney and grieving family say videos posted on social media of McBride gleefully firing high-powered weapons show that she’s a trigger-happy officer. Jerry Iannelli
How the Federal Government Lost Track of Deaths in Custody The Department of Justice is leaving researchers, policymakers, and advocates in the dark about deaths in police custody, prisons, and jails. Ethan Corey
Did Misconduct By A Rogue DEA Agent Nicknamed ‘White Devil’ Result In A Wrongful Conviction In A Houston Homicide? Lamar Burks has maintained his innocence for nearly 25 years in a murder case that has been marked by conflicting eyewitness accounts and the conviction of a DEA agent on corruption charges. Mike Hayes
Family of Black Mississippi Man Killed By Police Receives Narrow Explanation For Dropped Manslaughter Case A lawyer with the state attorney general’s office omitted key evidence in a meeting with the family of Ricky Ball, who Canyon Boykin shot and killed in 2015. Ko Bragg, Justin Brooks
Houston Police Chief’s Speeches Supporting Protesters Were Widely Circulated—But Video Proves His Officers Cracked Down on Them Videos contradict officers’ claims that they didn’t ‘kettle’ protesters. Jerry Iannelli
The Camden Police Department Is Not A Model For Policing In The Post-George Floyd Era The New Jersey department received slavish media praise after it was disbanded and reoriented toward community policing. But behind the reformist mask was an embrace of surveillance and broken windows policing. Brendan McQuade
George Floyd’s Death Puts Spotlight On Controversial Syndrome Called ‘Excited Delirium’ Coroners and police departments have cited the condition in cases across the country, often clearing officers of wrongdoing when people die in their custody. In Floyd’s case, experts say, the diagnosis is irrelevant to his death. Tana Ganeva
‘I’m Pretty Sure I Should Be Going Home’ As COVID-19 deaths mount in Michigan prisons, the review of questionable convictions has slowed, leaving prisoners vulnerable to the disease. Aaron Miguel Cantú
Freddie Gray, Five Years Later On the anniversary of the Baltimore Uprising protests, new evidence in Gray’s death uncovers suppressed witness accounts of police brutality. Justine Barron
Alabama Officials Executed Nathaniel Woods Despite Claims of Innocence. Then, Against His Religious Beliefs, They Autopsied His Body ‘It was almost like they were going to do whatever they could to demean him and take away his dignity,’ Woods’s spiritual adviser said. Beth Shelburne
Justice in America Episode 25: Conversation with Sherrilyn Ifill Josie Duffy Rice and guest co-host Darnell Moore talk with Sherrilyn Ifill about policing, civil rights, the criminal justice system, and more.
Alabama Executes Nathaniel Woods Despite Claims That He Was An ‘Innocent Man’ ‘I think everyone involved— the governor, the attorney general, the DOC commissioner—everyone knew it,’ his lawyer said. Lauren Gill
Alabama Prepares To Execute A Man Whose Case Is Haunted By Claims Of Police Misconduct Nathaniel Woods, who was convicted in connection with the deaths of three Birmingham police officers in 2004, is ‘100 percent innocent,’ the man who shot the officers told The Appeal. Lauren Gill
Baltimore Defense Attorneys Claim Surveillance Plane Footage Contradicts Law Enforcement Account Of Police Shooting Jawan Richards was shot by Baltimore police and hit with gun and assault charges stemming from the incident. His defense attorneys now say video evidence may exonerate their client. Brandon Soderberg
New Lawsuit Is Latest Example Of Residents Seeking Accountability For Wrongful Arrests In New York City Charges in each of four arrests of a city man were subsequently dropped. Now he has become one of a long line of New York City residents who have filed wrongful arrest lawsuits against the city. Dawn R. Wolfe
‘They Can Do This To Anybody’ Misconduct complaints against officers in the NYPD’s 34th Precinct have risen for three years straight. In 2018, 15 officers had complaints against them substantiated, the most of any precinct in New York City. Ali Winston
Longtime Louisiana Prisoner Who Maintained Her Innocence Dies Less Than Two Years After Her Release The poor healthcare that Bobbie Jean Johnson received during her more than 40 years in prison contributed to her death, family members say. Roxanna Asgarian
New York City Voters May Expand Power of Civilian Review Board, Allowing It to Investigate Police Who Lie If passed, Question 2 would also allow the board to force police commissioners to provide more insight into disciplinary decisions. Aaron Morrison
California Court Destroys Files In Historic Police Corruption Case Criminal case files from Oakland’s seminal Riders scandal were among documents shredded by the Alameda County Superior Court in 2015. Ali Winston, Darwin BondGraham
An Alabama Man Faces The Death Penalty For Two Murders. Could The Police Be Involved? In March, Coley McCraney was arrested and charged with capital murder in the 1999 killings of two teenage girls. But his attorneys say he’s innocent, and are now seeking information related to alleged police involvement in the homicides. Lauren Gill
The Appeal Podcast: Qualified Immunity, A Roadblock to Reform With Appeal contributors Amir H. Ali and Emily Clark of the MacArthur Justice Center Adam H. Johnson
Orange County’s ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ The California county has a thin blue line that appears to protect not just the police, but also the DA’s office, criminal justice advocates say. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Floridians Are Suing a Cop Fired for Planting Drugs in Their Vehicles Thanks to the diligence of one assistant state attorney, 119 cases were thrown out and the officer is under state investigation. Katie Rose Quandt
Body Cameras And Tasers Rake In Billions For Axon, But They’re No Panacea For Police Violence The popularity of Axon’s tech soared after the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014, but it may be doing more harm than good in protecting people from excessive force. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
It’s Time to Make Chicago Police Pay For Their Misdeeds—Out Of Their Own Budget Chicago hands out millions in settlements and legal fees for police misconduct. Its newly inaugurated mayor should take a dollar from the department’s budget for every dollar the city spends settling with its victims. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Commander Of Major California Narcotics Task Force Fired For A String Of Thefts And Lies Newly released records show that task force members faced allegations of theft and questionable overtime, all under the watch of a commander later fired for lying as the misconduct was investigated. Darwin BondGraham
Bronx Cops Celebrated A Copwatcher’s Arrest. They Had No Idea They Were Caught On Tape. New York City just paid Jose LaSalle of the Copwatch Patrol Unit nearly $900,000 over claims of false arrest related to the 2016 incident, but his fight for justice is far from over. Ashoka Jegroo
Did Baltimore Cops ‘Conspire’ To Suppress Evidence, Leading to a Wrongful Murder Conviction? Attorneys for a man exonerated in a Baltimore murder say detectives suppressed exculpatory evidence and that the police’s homicide unit has a pattern and practice of similar conduct in decades of cases. Amelia McDonell-Parry
Florida Woman Faced 10 Years For ‘Meth’ That Was ‘Just a Rock’ A scandal of falsified drug arrests is spreading at a Florida sheriff’s office that has also spent more than $1.33 million settling excessive force lawsuits and is at the center of the increasingly troubled Robert Kraft case. Meg O'Connor
The Appeal Podcast: How Police Unions Are Fighting California’s New Transparency Law With Appeal contributor Darwin BondGraham Adam H. Johnson
New York Agency Declines to Help Trans Woman Allegedly Harassed by Law Enforcement She is suing the Division of Human Rights for saying it’s not authorized to investigate her complaint. Emma Whitford
Just 6% of Columbus Police Officers Account for Half of All Force Reports Between 2001 and 2017, the department justified officers in 99 percent of use-of-force cases, according to data released through a public records request. Ethan Corey, George Joseph
New Evidence in the Death of a Queens Massage Worker Surveillance video sheds some light on the police raid that killed Yang Song last year while, advocates say, the raids continue. Emma Whitford, Melissa Gira Grant
Activists Fight Back After NYPD Turns Prosecutor To Avoid Civil Suits Max Rivlin-Nadler, Ashoka Jegroo
