In 2023, a report from the Police Executive Research Forum called for police to put the brakes on car chases unless a violent crime has been committed and the suspect poses an imminent threat. The report noted a spike in fatalities and an increase in pursuits by some departments, including in Houston and New York City.
John Kaehny has written and successfully lobbied for the passage of state and New York City laws related to government transparency and accountability, including the first open data law in the world in 2012.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office must comply with subpoenas issued by the county's civilian oversight board as part of a whistleblower investigation into alleged misconduct, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.
Yet while "Abolish ICE" serves as a unifying chant in the streets, Democrats are once again seeking to temper and co-opt people's demands into a narrow version of reform. The demands outlined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer could not be more toothless: requiring ICE agents to unmask, wear body cameras, and to follow a code of conduct modeled on other law enforcement agencies.
Surveillance technology vendors, federal agencies, and wealthy private donors have long helped provide local law enforcement "free" access to surveillance equipment that bypasses local oversight. The result is predictable: serious accountability gaps and data pipelines to other entities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), that expose millions of... SAN FRANCISCO - California must revoke permits allowing federal agencies such as Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to put automated license plate readers along border highways,
Yesenia Campos was only a few months into volunteering with the network when she was detained by ICE on Oct. 30 while observing agents in San Jose. Campos said she was collecting contact information for people being detained so their families could be notified when an agent ordered her to step back. When she did not move quickly enough, she said, the agent detained her. Other volunteers were present and documented the encounter.
As the Martin Luther King Jr. Kingdom Day Parade wound to an end in Leimert Park, activist Jason Reedy said he tried to "bird-dog" LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell over a recent increase in police shootings. One of the police department's most outspoken critics, Reedy, often confronts LAPD and city officials face to face in public forums. After jawing with members of McDonnell's security detail, Reedy got into a heated exchange with Alan Hamilton, a deputy chief who runs the detective bureau.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Monday that every Homeland Security officer on the ground in Minneapolis will be wearing a body camera, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. The decision comes amid widespread protests and criticism due to the killing of two US citizens by federal agents in the city of Minneapolis. Noem also pledged on X that DHS would "rapidly" expand the measure nationwide once funding became available.
Police-tracked crime, "contrary to what you have been told in the news every single day for the last several years, is actually down," says Karakatsanis, but fearmongering mainstream media narratives are "designed to make people so afraid that they support repressive institutions that infringe on their own liberty, that don't make them safer, but that give people in power in our society more ability to control and manipulate."
