In Brattleboro, a new kind of police patrol pushes treatment, not jail

Paul Cuno-Booth

January 02, 2021 |

Sentinel Source (The Keene Sentinel) |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Brattleboro, Vermont

Police officers paired with substance abuse counselors go onto Brattleboro's streets to offer no-strings-attached help to people using drugs. Without using arrests or other coercion, the Project CARE "recovery coaches" have connected dozens of people to rehab and other needed services since the program began in July 2018. Modeled on bigger, successful programs in Gloucester and Brockton, Massachusetts, CARE's effect on overdoses is unknown and the involvement of police is seen by some as a drawback. But the outreach has let the community know help is available for the asking – even from cops.

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Under Biden, the Justice Department is expected to again police the police

Robert Klemko

December 29, 2020 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, East Haven, Connecticut

After East Haven, Connecticut, police officers were caught harassing residents based on race, the Obama Justice Department took the police department to court and won a consent decree requiring a long list of reforms, in hiring, training, discipline, and use of force. The oversight, rare for a small city, changed the department's culture and won praise from many residents, who now trust the police more. Such federal action waned in the Trump years, but is expected to revive in the Biden administration, though perhaps under a more collaborative, less coercive model.

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An Alternative to Police That Police Can Get Behind

Rowan Moore Gerety

December 28, 2020 |

The Atlantic |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

A street-level view of White Bird Clinic's CAHOOTS program in Eugene explains its appeal as a cost-saving, humane alternative to sending the police to 911 calls concerning mostly minor problems involving homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse. From the decades-old program's countercultural beginnings to today's 24/7 presence, the private agency's publicly funded teams of a medic and crisis worker have helped keep problems from escalating into violence and jail time. But a number of factors call into question how scalable this approach would be in larger, more diverse cities.

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City program sends personal message about gun violence

Elise Kaplan

December 27, 2020 |

Albuquerque Journal |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque police make house calls to deliver a carrot-and-stick message to people at high risk of getting shot or shooting others. The Violence Intervention Program's "custom notifications" target people based on their criminal record or victimization in gun violence. The message: accept the offered services that can redirect your life, or suffer the consequences, of arrest or getting shot. Of 74 people notified and helped from March through mid-December 2020, none were known to have committed a new crime. Shootings in the city are up, but more research is needed to pinpoint the program's actual effects.

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Police Use Painful Dog Bites To Make People Obey

Abbie Vansickle Challen Stephens

December 14, 2020 |

The Marshall Project |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

Police often use dogs as a form of "pain compliance," non-lethal tactics that get a criminal suspect under control without having to resort to potentially lethal means. But this use of dogs can inflict pain and injury far out of proportion to the threat posed, even to the point that the detained person cannot comply with officers' demands. A lack of national standards or consensus about how to use dogs responsibly and safely, and the existence of many other tools and tactics that can be used instead, make the existence of hundreds of dog-bite cases a study in a failed de-escalation strategy.

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A secret settlement hid an officer's misconduct. Outside Maine, it would have been different.

Erin Rhoda

December 09, 2020 |

Bangor Daily News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

A Colorado law enacted in 2016 requires law enforcement officers to disclose their past disciplinary records when seeking a new job at a different agency. By making such disclosures automatic, the law standardizes hiring practices statewide, protects past employers from liability for making the disclosures, and most importantly prevents rogue officers from hopping from one job to the next undetected. Maine has no such requirement., and so some of its agencies might unknowingly hire an officer with a record of misconduct.

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How Portland Protesters Keep Each Other Safe

Isabella Garcia

December 09, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

Behind the nightly protests against racism and police brutality on Portland's streets for more than five months stands a network of street medics and mutual aid groups dedicated to equipping and protecting protesters, and treating their injuries after clashes with police. Portland's already-vibrant street medic community responded to the policing protests with emergency medical care. Their work, plus that of other mutual aid groups, has taken on an added dimension during the pandemic, with masks and hand sanitizer added to the list of supplies.

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NYPD Cops Cash In on Sex Trade Arrests With Little Evidence, While Black and Brown New Yorkers Pay the Price

Joshua Kaplan Joaquin Sapien

December 07, 2020 |

ProPublica |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

New York Police Department sex-crimes enforcement officially shifted away from arresting people selling sex to those buying it and those in the large-scale trafficking business. At the same time, the Human Trafficking Intervention Court was created to divert sex workers' criminal cases away from conviction and toward social services. The reality, however, is that police officers' overtime income gives them incentives to make high volumes of arrests of sex workers and buyers in flimsy, low-level cases that get plea-bargained down, but which skew heavily against people of color.

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Police Drones Are Starting to Think for Themselves

Cade Metz

December 05, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chula Vista, California

The first Drone as First Responder program in the U.S. expands the use of drone aircraft by the police, sending the aircraft on emergency calls without direct oversight by a human pilot. Using technology similar to self-driving cars, the drones deploy long-distance cameras and other sensors to observe things more quickly, safely, or efficiently than through traditional means. As more police departments adopt the equipment and tactic, privacy advocates warn of surveillance excesses that could harm over-policed populations.

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An oft-tried plan to curb violent crime in Baltimore resurfaces. City leaders say better leadership will bring better results.

Tim Prudente

December 01, 2020 |

The Baltimore Sun |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

In the 1990s and again in 2014, when Baltimore used a strategy called focused deterrence to reduce street violence, it showed initial promise but then failed. Those failures can be tied to how the program was managed, and to changes in leadership, not to the approach itself. The strategy offers help to people at risk of shooting others or being shot, but threatens them with prosecution if they reject the help and commit violence. The revived Group Violence Reduction Strategy has worked well in many cities, including New Orleans, where Baltimore's current police chief came from.

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