Resources

Facial Recognition can be used to identify people in photos, videos, and in real time, and is usually framed as more efficient and accurate than other forms of identity verification. Schools have also begun to use it to track students and visitors for a range of uses, from automating attendance to school security. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that it will erode individual privacy and disproportionately burden people of color, women, people with disabilities, and trans and gender non-conforming people. In this report, authors focus on the use of Facial Recognition in schools because it is not yet widespread and because it will impact particularly vulnerable populations. On the basis of this analysis, the authors strongly recommend that use of Facial Recognition be banned in schools. They have also offered some recommendations for its development, deployment, and regulation if schools proceed to use the technology.

After New York state repealed a law that kept police disciplinary records secret, ProPublica sought records from the civilian board that investigates complaints by the public about New York City police officers. The board provided us with the closed cases of every active-duty police officer who had at least one substantiated allegation against them. The records span decades, from September 1985 to January 2020. We have created a database of complaints that can be searched by name or browsed by precinct or nature of the allegations.

Jails have been described as the criminal justice system’s “front door,” but jail incarceration typically begins with the police, with an arrest. Before any bail hearing, pretrial detention, prosecution, or sentencing, there is contact with the police. But despite their crucial role in the process, we know less about these police encounters than other stages of the criminal justice system. This report analyzes gender and racial disparities in traffic and street stops, including arrests, searches, and use of force that occurs during stops.

Police contracts can create barriers to just and safe policing or provide guidance and structures that hold law enforcement accountable to communities. The contract negotiations process itself can provide a rare opening for community demands to be heard. Join PolicyLink and experts from around the country to learn about how campaigns in San Francisco, Chicago, and Austin, TX, leveraged police contract negotiations into calls for more accountability, made secretive contract negotiations more transparent, and worked to address the excessive power of police unions.

A zine with educational materials and activities on police accountability and police abolition.

Alex Vitale offers ten ways to make communities safer for everyone. The following concrete steps present a way forward, one that would begin to reduce reliance on policing.

The movement to redirect police funding towards social services and community care has ignited calls to re-examine police presence in schools. In the last month alone, several school districts have decided to disband school-based officers while urging their communities to shift funding towards other necessary services. Instead of relying on police to fulfill core educational functions, now is the time for schools to fund mental health professionals, academic support, and other evidence-based programs. Particularly in light of the twin pandemics of coronavirus and engrained structural racism, the scarce funding available should focus on what works best for students.

Many of the worst features of mass incarceration — such as racial disparities in prisons — can be traced back to policing. Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) research on the policies that impact justice-involved and incarcerated people therefore often intersects with policing issues. Now, at a time when police practices, budgets, and roles in society are at the center of the national conversation about criminal justice, PPI has compiled key work related to policing (and discussions of other researchers’ work) in one briefing.

A research report that examines 911 call data, civilian race, and officer use of force. Researchers found that white officers increase use of force as they are dispatched to more minority neighborhoods, compared to minority officers. Researchers also found that while white and Black officers use gun force at similar rates in white and racially mixed neighborhoods, white officers are five times as likely to use gun force in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Similarly, white officers increase use of any force much more than minority officers when dispatched to more minority neighborhoods.