Resources

This video short shows the process of “critical mapping” used to represent the cumulative and uneven impact of hot spot policing across New York City – every NYPD police stop, every hour, for the entire year of 2011. The process is called “critical mapping” because researchers use maps to interrogate and speak back to the “official” maps that label neighborhoods a “hot spot” of crime.

Researchers for Fair Policing is an intergenerational team of researchers from Make the Road New York & the Public Science Project. These videos are a collection of stories of young people’s experiences with the police and school safety officers. There have been over 1 million young people stopped over the past few years, each of these experiences is unique. As you listen to the stories, consider how the NYPD’s long history of aggressive, zero-tolerance policing policies are impacting young people and what should be done about it.

An interactive graphic of data on the many costs of broken windows policing.

Most states neglect ordering police to learn de-escalation tactics to avoid shootings. In 34 states, training decisions are left to local agencies. Most, though, conduct no, or very little, de-escalation training. Chiefs cite cost, lack of staff, and a belief that the training isn’t needed.

When police officers misbehave, why does it often remain a secret? This Reveal podcast episode follows reporter Robert Lewis as he tries to report on a secret list of police officers with criminal convictions. Next, Nikka Singh of “Snap Judgment” tells the story of one officer who has been able to stay employed at a series of police departments, despite repeated allegations of serious misconduct. Finally, host Al Letson sits down with Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), to find out how the largest association of police officers in the United States looks at transparency, accountability and standards for misconduct.

Some police departments are embracing tactics designed to reduce the use of force – and prevent shootings. Rather than rushing in aggressively, officers back off, wait out people in crisis and use words instead of weapons. It’s a technique called de-escalation. But this training isn’t required in most states. Reveal teams up with APM Reports and finds that most police spend a lot more time training to shoot their guns than learning how to avoid firing them.

Police sexual misconduct is often considered a hidden crime that routinely goes unreported. The current study provides an empirical data on cases of sex-related police crime at law enforcement agencies across the United States. The study identifies and describes incidents where sworn law enforcement officers were arrested for one or more sex-related crimes through analysis of published newspaper articles and court records. Findings indicate that police sexual misconduct includes serious forms of sex-related crime and that victims of sex-related police crime are typically younger than 18 years of age.

In this episode, The FRONTLINE Dispatch teams up with ProPublica to investigate a fatal police shooting in Weirton, West Virginia and the ramifications of its shocking aftermath.

This is a brief collection of information on how and why false confessions occur and why instituting policies of recording interrogations can help protect individuals being interrogated. It also highlights states and federal agencies that already have this policy in place.