Week of September 30, 2024

Mental health emergency response, safe gun storage and minimum age laws, domestic violence awareness, criminal charges over pregnancy, reimagining Chicago’s public safety, surveillance cameras, AI in policing, facial recognition, deactivated bodycams, new homicide county dashboard, progressive prosecutors, and more…

POLICE CONDUCT

City Removing Police And Fire Departments From Mental Health Emergency Response Program (Block Club Chicago)

New Des Moines police chief finalists announced (KCCI)

New Austin police contract worries some city council members (FOX7 Austin)

CRIME RATE

Safe storage and minimum age gun laws would curb violence, study says (Stateline.org)

UMich study finds rising firearm mortality rates among youth in most states (The Michigan Daily)

Nearly Nine out of 10 Women Murdered by Men are Killed by Someone They Know and Two Thirds Die by Gunfire, New Violence Policy Center Study Finds (Violence Policy Center) see also: Toward a Better Estimate of Domestic Violence in America (Council on Criminal Justice)

New police records-management system affects crime data reporting: Riverhead police chief (Riverhead Local)

200+ women faced criminal charges over pregnancy in year after Dobbs, report finds Six states — Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — accounted for the majority of cases documented by researchers (Missouri Independent)

Competing Crime Data Shows Decrease City-Wide, But Increase on the Commons (Ithaca.com)

Research Project Tries to Reimagine Chicago’s Approach to Public Safety (WTTW)

CRIM-TECH

Many cameras. Little focus. Blurry results. Chicago police bet big on pricey surveillance cameras. Two decades later, the devices do little to solve most crimes. (Chicago Tribune)

No man’s hand: artificial intelligence does not improve police report writing speed (Springer Link)

Maryland Policy Will Dictate Police Use of Facial Recognition (GovTech)

AI in Home Surveillance: Can We Trust AI Video Analytics? (Techopedia)

POLICE TRANSPARENCY

AAPD deactivated bodycams while patrolling UMich Gaza solidarity encampment sweep, Daily investigation finds (The Michigan Daily)

Can Data Stop Death? Cook County, Ill.’s New Dashboard Aims to Try (GovTech)

THE PRISON SYSTEM

Progressive Prosecutors Were Not Responsible for Increases in Violent or Property Crime Before, During, or After the COVID-19 Pandemic (AmericanProgress.org)