Week of June 7, 2021

Federal law enforcement requires body cameras causing local Sheriff’s offices to pull deputies, police union contracts, access to public police scanners ends in Honolulu, data transparency failures of the Clery Act, ghost guns a problem in Philly, Dallas crime reduction plan working, racial profiling report compliance in Texas, and more…

POLICE CONDUCT

Minneapolis illegally withholding hundreds of police misconduct files, says lawsuit from public records advocates (The Star Tribune)

KXAN investigation leads to first-ever 100% racial profiling report compliance in Texas (KXAN)

Beaufort cop invited kids to lunch. Then he showed them family’s criminal records (The Island Packet)

Asheville police release list of calls officers will no longer respond to. Move comes in response to dozens of officers leaving police force in past year, officials say (Wyff4)

U.S. Mandates Body Cameras for Federal Law-Enforcement Officers (Wall Street Journal) see also: HCSO, ACSO pull deputies from U.S. Marshal task force until body cam policy changes (Fox9)

Police Union Contracts: An Analysis of Large Cities (Academia)

What’s the footprint of policing where you live? (Vera Institute of Justice)

County, police agencies applying for iPad funds to assist in mental health response (The Daily News)

CRIME RATE

Despite longer 911 wait times, Dallas police chief says crime reduction plan is slowly working (Fox4News)

IMPD’s new violent crime units remove hundreds of illegal guns in two months (Fox59) see also: Philadelphia crime stats show ‘ghost guns’ are a problem (6 Action news)

CRIM-TECH

Citizen Drops It Plan To Become Private Cops, Claims It Was Never Interested In Forming A Private Security Force (TechDirt)

Maryland Limits Police Access to Genealogy Website Data (Governing.com)

Anchorage police draft proposal calls for wearing of bodycams by uniformed officers at all times (Anchorage Daily News)

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile will start providing z-axis data for 911 calls They have seven days to start providing the data, and a year to work on full deployment and testing. (Endgadget)

POLICE TRANSPARENCY

Critics advocate reforms to limit bodycam fees and redactions (Daily Memphian)
Honolulu Ends Public Access to Police, Fire Scanners (Governing.com) see also: Honolulu Joins A National Debate: When Should Police Bodycam Footage Be Released? (Honolulu Civil Beat)

Learning from the data transparency failures of The Clery Act (SpotCrime Blog)

Data: Why Public Records Requests Are Getting Harder to Fulfill (GovTech)

THE PRISON SYSTEM

Civil rights groups, former inmates protest expansion of Travis County jail facilities (KVUE)

N.J. landlords may soon be banned from automatically denying renters with criminal records (NJ.com)

Mobile unit in South Bend area could offer cops an alternative to jailing people with mental illnesses (South Bend Tribune)