Policing

Hundreds of local police departments have received waivers to fly surveillance drones that navigate with AI.

Human rights experts condemn the increasing use of weapons like tear gas, pepper balls, and rubber bullets.

As Phoenix PD rushed to fill open positions, the department may have overlooked red flags in recruits’ backgrounds.

Police face allegations of violating laws meant to protect immigrants from DC to Oregon to Colorado and beyond.

Fresh investigative reporting, media from other independent outlets, and stories from the archives.

Before ICE descended on New Orleans, GOP lawmakers made it a crime to interfere with immigration enforcement.

Tim Ballard, the disgraced “anti-sex-trafficking” expert, was the subject of a hit 2023 biographical film and serial sexual misconduct allegations in the same year. After Ballard’s fall, the people he helped arrest in Washington want to know why no one seems willing to take a second look at their cases.

The “crime panic” was a myth. But an analysis by The Appeal shows the narrative helped local police buy facial recognition software, drones, license plate readers, social media surveillance tech, and more.

Data obtained by The Appeal shows that more than 75 percent of the misconduct incidents in NLEAD, the federal police misconduct database Trump deleted this month, were generated by prison and border guards.

Media focus on killings obscures many cases of non-fatal force, MindSite News-Medill investigation shows.

Democrats spent the last four years running away from police reform. “Funding the police” didn’t just help them lose the presidency—it handed a dangerous man an even stronger police and surveillance state.

Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said that, as of Oct. 18, deputies can no longer join internal gangs. But after stonewalling and hiding footage from my family for more than a year, I don’t believe Luna’s words mean much.

Violence interrupters work. But D.C.’s police union is trying to capitalize on a scandal to eliminate them.

Phoenix’s police chief called the findings of a damning DOJ report “accusations.” City leaders continue to reject federal oversight. They voted to give the police more money instead.

Attorneys say the district’s practice of sending armed police officers to mental health emergencies violates the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The state launched an investigation after the former chief medical examiner’s biased testimony in the George Floyd murder trial. Now, an Appeal analysis finds major flaws in the probe’s design.

A college student was convicted of murder for a death he did not cause. Reforms to the controversial law that landed him in prison have not led to his freedom.

The Texas Department of Public Safety plans to spend millions in taxpayer dollars on a controversial software, used first as part of Governor Abbott’s border crackdown, to “disrupt potential domestic terrorism.”

After The Appeal published an investigation into the Phoenix Police Department’s killing of 19-year-old Jacob Harris, a community coalition sprung up to help Harris’s three young friends, who are incarcerated for his death. Now, a court has granted the trio a chance to get out of prison.

The city of Chicago is cutting ties with the gunshot detection firm ShotSpotter. But the product’s parent company—and competitors—now offer so many interlocking services that it’s nearly impossible for departments to cut the cord.

In June, the DOJ said the Phoenix Police Department routinely commits egregious civil rights violations. Community members are demanding change—and the release of three Phoenix youths imprisoned for a murder committed by a police officer.

A MindSite News-Medill investigation documents wide use of tasers in response to 911 mental health calls.

The Appeal contacted more than 120 prosecutors and city attorneys to ask if they’ll file criminal cases against campus demonstrators. So far, only four expressed apprehension at doing so.

Documents obtained by The Appeal show law enforcement warning of a “strong possibility” of anti-police violence by student protesters at Cal Poly Humboldt ahead of a sweep that led to mass arrests.

The DOJ said the Phoenix Police Department engages in a stunningly long list of civil rights violations, including using excessive force, discriminating against people of color, hurting children, and harassing the unhoused.

George Floyd’s ancestors were born into slavery. Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa powerfully document Floyd’s life and lineage.

Studies show “negative public perceptions” of police contribute to low recruitment. Stripping away police oversight will only lead to more bad press for cops.

When residents of Leyden, Massachusetts, started investigating their former police chief, they didn’t know it would end with criminal charges—and a successful push to reform the town’s government.

Lawmakers tried and failed to track “wandering officers.” But state regulators also refuse to release data that would help journalists and the public do so.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Phoenix Police Department for potential civil rights violations. During last week’s city council meeting, residents said city officials must stop fighting the inquiry.

A recent report by the New Jersey Comptroller’s office found that a company called Street Cop trained police to shoot indiscriminately at people, medically experiment on the injured, and treat virtually anyone who isn’t a white, straight, cisgender male with open disdain. More training like this won’t make America safer.

New York officials have flooded the subway system with cops and military personnel in a show of “security theater.” Will it actually make people safer—and is that even the point?

The Thirteenth Amendment bans all “badges and incidents” of slavery. But the use of police dogs enacts cruelty on both people of color and the dogs themselves. To fully rid society of slavery, the dogs must be retired.

In 2022, Timothy Tyler was chosen to lead the Champaign Police Department — despite a string of misconduct allegations from his first policing job in the south Chicago suburb of Markham through his time at the Illinois State Police.

The department reported misses more than 550 times in 2023, and a public safety director complained about a 55-round miss in 2022.

After decades of protests over police violence, many cities have created non-police crisis response teams. These unarmed first responders typically answer 911 calls for people having mental health crises. Here’s how they work.

Chief Ken Wallentine has repeatedly defended police behavior that judges later found violated the constitution or resulted in millions of dollars in settlements and judgments.

Alisa Reznick’s arrest marks the second time police within the United States have detained a reporter at a pro-Palestine protest in recent months.

Advocates say the Cook County Sheriff’s Department’s house-arrest policies trap women in unsafe situations—and often force mothers to choose between their safety or their children.