Latest in Policing in America
Rather than treat Black and Brown Americans as members of the public they are supposed to serve, the culture and practices of U.S. policing treat them as a less-than-human enemy.
A review of Sierra Pettengill’s documentary film, “Riotsville, U.S.A.” (2022).
A review of Michelle Wilde Anderson, “The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America” (Simon & Schuster, 2022).
In discussions of police brutality, an important issue that is neglected is the age—and, therefore, developmental capacity—of the officers. That needs to change in order to limit harmful policing.
The attack on the Capitol was enabled by a law enforcement culture that has ignored white supremacy and far-right extremism
Legal challenges to police misconduct often do their best to deny claims that police officers are “experts” in the field. But what if they are, and that’s part of the problem?
Fourth Amendment doctrine and new policing technologies have made law enforcement less transparent, less accountable and less trustworthy. Transparency law is beginning to fill the gap.
Although law enforcement investigations have always depended on information from private actors, modern technology and big data have transformed an analog collection process into an automated, digital one. This shift has elevated the role that private entities play in the investigative process, mirroring the growth of private influence across the entire criminal system. Many of these private influences have been fiercely criticized.
Policing increasingly relies on the collection of digital data, often of people for whom there is no basis for suspicion. Police seek fewer search warrants and more requests to harvest metadata, they buy data from brokers, they track location and other aspects of our lives. Sometimes police collect the data themselves. More often they gather it from third parties. They do so by purchase, and by court order.
Today, more than ever, law enforcement has access to massive amounts of consumer data that allow police to, essentially, pluck a suspect out of thin air. Internet service providers and third parties collect and aggregate precise location data generated by our devices and their apps, making it possible for law enforcement to easily determine everyone who was in a given area during a given time period.