Resources

This is an analysis of criminal punishment system reforms passed in New York in 2019. The public health crisis of COVID-19 that hit NYC in early 2020 has already had a deep impact on the carceral structures of the city and state. The hope is that this abolitionist assessment of these recent reforms can serve as a durable resource for organizers considering progressive-seeming but carceral state-expanding legislation and policies that come about in their locales, both during this COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

A resource and guide that offers alternatives to policing.

As civilians, how do we hold the police responsible for wrongdoing? On the first episode of Season 3, Josie Duffy and co-host Darnell Moore discuss different avenues of police accountability and explain why it’s so hard for the criminal justice system to hold police accountable. They are joined by Alicia Garza, an activist, writer, and organizer, who currently serves as principal at Black Futures Lab. Alicia is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and has been a leader in the fight against police brutality and discriminatory policing, particularly in black communities.

In an age of heightened concern about the militarization of local police and surveillance technology, how do local law enforcement agencies obtain cutting edge and potentially intrusive surveillance equipment without elected leaders and the general public realizing it? The answer lies in the process of federal procurement, through which the federal government, often in the name of combatting terrorism, funnels billions of dollars to local law enforcement agencies that can then be used to purchase surveillance equipment. This report is the first to comprehensively consider the intersection of procurement and local surveillance policy making. Using case studies from Seattle, Oakland, and San Diego, it exposes the practice of surveillance policy making by procurement.

This is one part in a four-part series of reports on police accountability and union contracts in Chicago. The Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability (CPCA) has proposed 14 critical reforms to Chicago’s police union contracts which can have a significant impact in ending the code of silence and increasing police accountability. This report focuses on recommendations 1-4 made by the CPCA, which speak to provisions in the contracts that make it difficult to identify police misconduct.

This is one part in a four-part series of reports on police accountability and union contracts in Chicago. The Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability (CPCA) has proposed 14 critical reforms to Chicago’s police union contracts which can have a significant impact in ending the code of silence and increasing police accountability. The focus of this report is on recommendations 5 and 6, which speak to provisions in the contracts that enable collusion and make it easier for officers to lie about misconduct.

This is one part in a four-part series of reports on police accountability and union contracts in Chicago. The Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability (CPCA) has proposed 14 critical reforms to Chicago’s police union contracts which can have a significant impact in ending the code of silence and increasing police accountability. The focus of this report is on recommendations 7, 8 and 9, which speak to the provisions in the contracts that require officials to ignore or destroy evidence of officer misconduct.

This is one part in a four-part series of reports on police accountability and union contracts in Chicago. The Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability (CPCA) has proposed 14 critical reforms to Chicago’s police union contracts which can have a significant impact in ending the code of silence and increasing police accountability. The focus of this report is on recommendations 10-13 which speak to provisions in the contracts that make it difficult to investigate and be transparent about police misconduct.

House Bill 2355 (2017) mandated that by 2021, all Oregon law enforcement agencies must submit data regarding officer initiated traffic and pedestrian stops to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, so the Commission could analyze the submitted data for evidence of racial or ethnic disparities on an annual basis. To do this, the Commission, the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) created the Oregon Statistical Transparency of Policing (STOP) Program. This is the first annual report to the Oregon Legislature by the STOP Program examining data received.