by Jo Ellen Nott
A new study, “On the Robustness of Black Americans’ Support for the Police: Evidence from a National Experiment” published in the May-June 2024 issue of the Journal of Criminal Justice, challenges the dominant narrative that Black Americans want less policing.
The research done by criminal justice ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
In a controversial move among its “get tough on crime” measures advanced in the February special legislative session, Louisiana became the first state to permit surgical castration as a punishment for sex crimes under a new law signed by Republican Governor Jeff Landry on June 11, ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
Axon announced the launch of Draft One, a technology that the company calls its newest public safety product, on April 23, 2024. This AI system generates police reports from the audio of body-worn cameras and has raised concerns that the technology could worsen existing issues in ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
On June 17, 2024, Democratic Governor Wes Moore signed an executive order in Annapolis to issue more than 175,000 pardons for low-level marijuana convictions, seeking to rectify “historical wrongs” tied to marijuana enforcement. The pardons cover all simple marijuana possession charges and possession of drug paraphernalia ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
A ProPublica investigation published in May 2024 has uncovered significant reliability issues with the New York Police Department’s (“NYPD”) public database for tracking officer discipline. The investigation looked at over 1,000 daily snapshots of the database since 2021 and found 88 percent of the cases disappeared ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
20th Judicial District Court Judge Patrick Butler unsealed a troubling internal affairs report from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (“CBI”) in June 2024 that revealed a decade of missed opportunities to address misconduct by Yvonne “Missy” Woods, a veteran DNA scientist.
For almost three decades Woods, ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
A congressional probe revealed that the U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) has shared a decade’s worth of data with law enforcement. This information, known as metadata, is gathered from the outside of envelops and packages and does not require a warrant.
The USPS collects this data under ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
Drug testing is a commonly accepted form of compliance control used widely in the U.S. It is used in criminal investigations, child welfare checks, and probation or parole monitoring. Drug tests are often required while applying for employment or to retain employment. The results need to ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
A top FBI official is urging his agents to continue using a warrantless foreign surveillance program, Section 702, to justify the bureau’s surveillance powers. This program, which has been misused to target U.S. protesters, journalists, and a sitting member of Congress, was extended by lawmakers for ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
Martin Lucio Santillan, now 50 years old, was fully exonerated in the Frank Crowley Criminal Courts in Dallas, Texas, on March 22, 2023. His 25 years of wrongful imprisonment ended because Centurion Ministries believed his innocence after a simple interview in 2008.
When 21-year-old Damond Wittman ...
