Resources

As access to data about policing has become the subject of increased advocacy and police data has become increasingly available, a growing cottage industry has arisen around collecting, analyzing, and publicizing information about policing. Unfortunately, these efforts are often disconnected from organizing aimed at effecting change by reducing and eliminating police profiling, violence and criminalization.

A convening was held with the overall objective to discuss the potential benefits and harms of police data collection and dissemination, and to surface and develop best practices in an accountable and reciprocal relationship with individuals and communities directly targeted by policing and the people and organizations representing and working directly with them. This report draws on the rich discussion of these questions to make a series of recommendations for participants, for the field, and for philanthropic partners.

It’s been four years since a Phoenix police officer killed Jacob Harris. Records obtained by The Appeal show officials have made inconsistent or false statements about the night police killed him. As Harris’s friends grow up behind bars, his father won’t stop until he gets justice for his son.

An investigation by The Marshall Project and The Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis found incidents of aggressive policing throughout the 1,900-member force. A review of more than 200 arrest reports from spring of last year shows that rank-and-file officers, as well as Scorpion members, used overzealous methods in their encounters. Among them: stopping a vehicle because part of its temporary tag was “flapping in the wind,” chasing a man for “appearing to back away” as they approached, and detaining someone after he warned people in his neighborhood that plainclothes police were conducting an investigation. The department’s own data indicates broad use of aggressive tactics.

The NYPD Misconduct Complaint Database, which the NYCLU obtained through Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests, is a repository of complaints made by the public on record at the CCRB. These complaints span two distinct periods: the time since the CCRB started operating as an independent city agency outside the NYPD in 1994 and the prior period when the CCRB operated within the NYPD. The database includes 279,644 unique complaint records involving 102,121 incidents and 48,757 active or former NYPD officers.

The Muslim Abolitionist Futures National Network is releasing this public statement in solidarity with #StopCopCity protestors and joins organizational demands to drop domestic terrorism charges against the Defend the Atlanta Forest Protestors. Since December, 42 protestors have been charged with domestic terrorism, a felony that carries up to 35 years in prison. These terrorism enhancements are meant to punish #StopCopCity forest defenders and repress resistance movements.

Over the past few years, there has been growing attention to the violence of policing and obstacles to police accountability and community safety that does not rely on police. With this heightened attention, the role and influence of police unions/fraternal organizations/associations has entered the spotlight, sparking discussions and debate over how to challenge obstacles posed by police union power.1 As calls grow to address police union power, so too does apprehension around targeting what many assume functions as a typical labor union. Some caution that critiques of police unions is a slippery slope that can only lead to negative consequences for all public sector unions, not just those for police unions.

Police violence is a public health issue in need of public health solutions. Reducing police contact through public health–informed alternative response programs separate from law enforcement agencies is one strategy to reduce police perpetration of physical, emotional, and sexual violence. Such programs may improve health outcomes, especially for communities that are disproportionately harmed by the police, such as Black, Latino/a, Native American, and transgender communities; nonbinary residents; people who are drug users, sex workers, or houseless; and people who experience mental health challenges.

The use of alternative response teams is increasing across the United States. This article provides a public health rationale and framework for developing and implementing alternative response programs informed by public health principles of care, equity, and prevention.

A searchable database of police, sheriffs, and other public safety agencies’ contracts.