Resources

In December 1968, 14-year old Dorothy Belle Young and her 11-year-old sister Yvonne were arrested for “using profane language at school to white boys.” While Yvonne received probation, Dorothy was detained at the Regional Youth Development Center (a juvenile jail) in Sanderville, GA. Black residents of Sylvester, GA, a town of 5,000 where the girls and their family lived, mobilized in support of Dorothy. They claimed that the sisters and their other siblings were being punished for integrating an all-white school. National Civil Rights figures also came to Dorothy’s defense including Coretta Scott King and Dr. Ralph Abernathy who traveled to Sylvester to lead protests. This publication offers a glimpse at a history of the criminalization of Black girls. It includes beautiful illustration and some activities. The publication was created with high school students in mind.

Historically, Black women, girls, and femmes have not fit the most accessible frames of anti-Black police violence. Consequently, it is difficult to tell stories about their lost lives that people recognize and remember. Their precarity is buried beneath myths, stereotypes, and denial. But the heartbreaking truth is that Black girls as young as 7 and women as old as 93 have been killed by the police. Explore a special zine issue highlighting the victims of police violence and an interactive webpage to learn more about the women that #SayHerName represents.

A report that looks into who foots the bill for law enforcement settlements and judgments in locations around the US. Findings should expand courts’ and scholars’ understandings of the impact of lawsuits on police reform efforts, inspire experimentation with budgeting arrangements that encourage more caretaking and accountability by law enforcement, and draw attention to the positive role government insurers can and do play in efforts to promote risk management and accountability in policing.

This ACLU research report examines whether circumstances surrounding the public health crisis — unprecedented societal isolation combined with relaxed police department routine enforcement — has led to a change in the frequency with which the police fatally shoot people in the U.S. Analysis reveals that the police have continued to fatally shoot people at the same rate during the first six months of 2020 as they did over the same period from 2015 to 2019. The report also demonstrates that Black, Native American/Indigenous, and Latinx people are still more likely than white people to be shot and killed by police. The report puts forth a set of recommendations designed to reduce police departments’ role, presence, responsibilities, and funding, including dramatically transforming use-of-force laws, and instead reinvest into community-based services that are better suited to respond to actual community needs.

There is no question that the number of police killings of civilians in the U.S. – who are disproportionately Black and other people of color – are the result of policies and practices that enable and even encourage police violence. Compared to police in other wealthy democracies, American police kill civilians at incredibly high rates.

A report from Grassroots Leadership, Just Futures Law, and Mijente that documents the rise of surveillance technology use in Austin, Texas. This report looks at the relationship and links between tech companies, city projects, and increases in policing and surveillance of Austin residents. Authors analyze local policing initiatives like the Austin Regional Intelligence Center and note contracts held by local law enforcement agencies with tech companies. They also note the collaboration between local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and how tech companies bolster this collaboration, leading to deportations and further erosion of Austin’s Black, Latinx, and immigrant residents. The authors also present advocacy demands for this issue.

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.

This is the first of a series of reports on the performance of face recognition algorithms on faces occluded by protective face masks commonly worn to reduce inhalation of viruses or other contaminants. This report documents accuracy of algorithms to recognize persons wearing face masks.

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.