Resources

A thesis on the history of video surveillance in the criminal justice field (cameras, bodyworn cameras, dashcam footage, etc.) and issues with recording, preserving, accessing videos and privacy concerns.

Through research compiled by Policing Project staff, the independent Ethics Board examined law enforcement’s use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), the resulting threats to civil liberties and racial justice, and the possibility for the rise of pervasive surveillance systems. The Board concluded that the growing availability of low-cost ALPR systems, which would be further propelled by Axon’s entry into the ALPR market, has the potential to increase dramatically law enforcement’s use of the technology. The Board further concluded that the use of ALPRs is precariously unregulated or under-regulated in many jurisdictions.

As resistance to the US imprisonment system grows, states and local jurisdictions have turned toward expanding their jail systems under the guise of making them seem more accommodating and service friendly. This chart provides examples of some common reforms or proposals around jails that only uphold their legitimacy and continue oppressive functions of jailing and initiatives to support instead.

A collection of legal resources geared towards those involved in water protector activism, including digital security and self-defense tools, your rights within immigration and border zones, and how to interact with law enforcement when demonstrating or if law enforcement comes to you.

In this report, readers will find information about the need for greater access to policing data, an overview of the Vera Institute’s Arrest Trends tool as well as several initial findings gleaned from it, and future directions for this work.

This toolkit is intended to help activists, organizations, and communities identify and act on solutions to change policing for the better in their own communities.

This report was developed to give individuals, communities, activists, advocacy organizations, law makers, and police departments the knowledge to co-produce public safety. The best practices recommended here are adaptable to every department, in every community across the nation; the ultimate goal is fair, safe, and effective policing that respects and protects human life and ensures safety for all.

The proliferation in local police departments’ use of surveillance technology, which in most places has occurred without any community input or control, presents significant threats to civil rights and civil liberties that disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income communities. The nationwide “Community Control Over Police Surveillance” effort is looking to change that through legislation mandating that local communities are given a meaningful opportunity to review and participate in all decisions about if and how surveillance technologies are acquired and used locally.

Piecing together the responses to over 100 Freedom of Information Act requests and dozens of interviews, researchers found that more than half of American adults were enrolled in a face recognition network searchable by law enforcement. Across the country, state and local police departments are building their own face recognition systems, many of them more advanced than the FBI’s. We know very little about these systems. We don’t know how they impact privacy and civil liberties. We don’t know how they address accuracy problems. And we don’t know how any of these systems—local, state, or federal—affect racial and ethnic minorities.