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.
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.
Ed Gainey Wins Democratic Nomination for Pittsburgh Mayor
The state representative will almost certainly be the city’s first Black mayor, and his victory follows a year of nationwide social upheaval over police and racial justice issues.
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.
After Daunte Wright’s Death, Advocates Press Leaders to Get Police Out of Traffic Enforcement
Cities across the country must rethink the role of law enforcement, as police continue to brutalize and kill Black men and women during traffic stops, advocates say.
Sheila Nezhad Says Police Are Not the Path to Public Safety in Minneapolis
Nezhad, a community organizer, is seeking to unseat incumbent Jacob Frey on a platform of transforming public safety without police, providing housing for all, and addressing poverty through direct economic support.
A Florida Lawmaker Introduced Legislation to Remove Traffic Enforcement From Police
Cities across the country have begun exploring traffic enforcement without police. This bill proposes doing so statewide.
Philly Cops Are Solving Fewer Homicides. The City Keeps Paying Them Millions
Community members and advocates question why Mayor Jim Kenney and the City Council continue to fund the police department at record levels, despite the department’s low murder solve rate.
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.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s Legacy of Empty Promises
There may be one reason for local progressives to support Walsh for the U.S. secretary of labor: He’ll leave town.
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.
Police Unions Are Losing The War on Criminal Justice Reform
Law enforcement organizations have long treated mass incarceration as a job creation program. In 2020, the tide began turning against them.
San Francisco Voters Abolish Mandatory Staffing Levels for Police
Current law mandated that the city have at least 1,971 full-time police officers.
Athena Hollins Wins Seat In Minnesota State House, Pledging To Fight For Broad Police Reforms
Hollins’s ‘very personal’ decision to run was sparked in part by the Trump administration ‘catching everything on fire.’ Now she wants to advocate for subsidized child care, police reform, and more.
Tiffany Cabán: Why I Am Running For New York City Council
In the face of a pandemic and police violence, elected leaders have failed to keep us safe and to champion the voices of marginalized communities like mine. Now it is time to determine our own future.
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.
It’s Time To Form A Community-Led Citizen Review Board For The Cedar Rapids Police
Now is the time to act. If we have learned anything since George Floyd’s death, it is that we cannot keep waiting for change.
Want Prosecutorial Reform? Start With Curtailing The Influence Of Police Unions.
Removing police union influence from the prosecutor’s office is a critical first step towards building a system that is safe, just, and fair for all.
Santa Cruz County Grand Jury Homelessness Report Calls for Defunding of Police
A June report from the county’s independent judicial arm urges local government to reallocate law enforcement resources to social services.
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.
10 Ways To Reduce Our Reliance On Policing And Make Our Communities Safer For Everyone
Police should no longer occupy all of our vital support systems in our communities.
Jacklean Davis Was The First Black Woman To Serve As a Homicide Detective in New Orleans. Did A Now Disbarred Prosecutor Bring About Her Fall?
In the 1990s, Davis was a policing superstar, hailed as the best crime solver the Crescent City had ever seen. But a dispute over a paid detail at a festival turned into a major federal case against her, brought by a prosecutor involved whose conduct in other cases was called ‘grotesque.’
Philadelphia Police Make Hundreds of Looting Arrests, Leave Many More Violent Crime Cases Unsolved
The city’s clearance rate for murder, whose victims are disproportionately Black, has hovered around 40 percent for the last several years.
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.
Activists Say Chicago Mayor’s Police Reform Promises Ring Hollow
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has hampered the process of installing a police oversight council, activists say, despite making it a major part of her public safety platform during her mayoral run.
The Bumpy Road to Police Abolition
Protesters and activists have categorically changed the national conversation about public safety. Now they have to figure out how to change public policy.
Portland City Council Votes to Cut $15 Million From Police Budget
The cuts will defund a controversial gang policing unit and end the city’s policing partnership with TriMet, the regional transit agency.
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.
American Democracy Cannot Breathe
Yes, we must radically transform policing in America. But we cannot stop there. We must transform the pervasive systems of economic and carceral injustice that are choking our common life.
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.
Louisville Metro Council Bans No-Knock Raids Following The Police Killing of Breonna Taylor
Breonna Taylor was killed nearly three months ago during a no-knock raid. All 26 members of the Metro Council have signed on as co-sponsors to “Breonna’s Law,” which would ban them.
Atlanta’s Mayor Wants $13 Million More For Police. Four Officers Were Just Fired For Using Excessive Force.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has asked for the budget increase amid ongoing local and national reports of police violence against protesters.
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.
Minneapolis City Council Members Announce Intent To Disband The Police Department, Invest In Proven Community-Led Public Safety
The move follows the police killing of George Floyd and more than a week of uprisings, where hundreds of thousands of people around the world have protested against police violence, and abusive police responses to the protests.
No More ‘COPS’
Under the HEROES Act, the Community Oriented Policing Services program would receive $300 million to fund the hiring of more police. Democratic and Republican leaders alike remain committed to the ideology of increased funding, even under the guise of reform.
There’s A Pattern Of Police Unions Attacking People Who Call For Criminal Justice Reform, Especially When They Are Black
A Philadelphia police union’s recent attack on Players Coalition co-founder Malcolm Jenkins matches rhetorical tactics that officers’ groups are using in the face of outspoken support for criminal justice reforms.
Police Policy for Sale
Lexipol, a private for-profit company, has quietly become one of the most powerful voices in law enforcement policymaking in the country.
St. Louis County Is Profiting Off the ‘Muni Shuffle’ Long After Ferguson Protests
A new proposal to abolish small police forces seeks to end the cycle of debt and incarceration.
The Appeal Podcast Episode 7: What Abolitionists Mean When They Talk About Abolition
With William C. Anderson, journalist and co-author of As Black As Resistance.
NYPD is one delete button away from losing its civil forfeiture records
Criminal charges are absent from 85 percent of all forfeiture cases in the city.