At the direction of Donald Trump, U.S. Attorney General William Barr is launching a national commission on crime and law enforcement. It's not the first time a president has formed such a panel, but indications are that this one will take a very different approach than its predecessors.
A quick note from Dave with details on upcoming public appearances for A City Divided: Race, Fear and the Law in Police Confrontations.
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Police suicides are on the rise. Just how bad is the problem? Why is it happening, and what can be done to stop it?
Sandy Jo MacArthur is a former Assistant Chief for the Los Angeles Police Department who now coordinates mental health training for all Los Angeles County law enforcement.
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Florida may soon execute a man convicted of murder largely on the testimony of another man with whom he shared a jail cell. The problem? The informant, an ex-cop, has a decades-long long record of fraud and deception. A joint report by ProPublica and the New York Times Magazine says Paul Skalnik may be one of the most prolific jailhouse snitches in the country. But the use of such informants to bolster flimsy cases is widespread.
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A City Divided, David Harris's book on the 2010 beating of Jordan Miles by Pittsburgh police, drops this week. You can hear him talk about the project in person at one of these upcoming appearances:
Years before Ferguson, the well-publicized beating of a black teen by three white police officers exposed a deep racial divide in Pittsburghers' perceptions of, and experiences with, law enforcement. On its tenth anniversary, David Harris explores the Jordan Miles case and its aftermath in a new book -- A City Divided: Race, Fear and the Law in Police Confrontations.
In this special episode, Dave sits down with producer Josh Raulerson to discuss what the incident can teach us about race, human perception, and the militarization of policing.
Catch Dave on tour:
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The National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice began just a year after Ferguson. The Initiative aimed to improve criminal justice outcomes and police-community relations in six cities. Now the results are in. Did it work? And what can we learn as we look for ways to improve our whole system?
Jesse Jannetta is a Senior Policy Fellow in the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where he leads projects on prison and jail re-entry, community-based violence reduction strategies, and community supervision. He co-authored a report assessing the Initiative’s implementation phase.
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