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Taking cops out of traffic stops: Would it make a difference? North Carolina examples offer a clue

Ahmed Jallow

March 22, 2021 |

Burlington Times News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Fayetteville, North Carolina

For four years, Fayetteville, N.C., police virtually banned their officers from making traffic stops for petty violations having nothing to do with traffic safety, but increased their enforcement of speeding, red-light, and drunken driving violations. During that time, traffic fatalities decreased. So did the use of force by police, complaints about the police, and injuries to drivers and police. About half as many Black drivers' cars were searched. Unnecessary traffic stops can strain police-community relations and show bias against non-white drivers.

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A month into pilot program, Portland Street Response Team brings hope to the streets

Laural Porter

March 19, 2021 |

KGW-TV |

Broadcast TV Talk Show |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

In its first month of operation, Portland Street Response Team began intervening with people on the streets who are experiencing substance abuse or mental health problems. The program, modeled on Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS program, provides counseling and paramedic services on 911 calls that once were handled only by police or fire officials. The pilot program is limited to one neighborhood and daytime hours, but will expand if results continue to show positive impacts. The target neighborhood was chosen for its cultural diversity and large numbers of people experiencing homelessness.

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A California town was promised police reform – then police got involved

Aaron Miguel Cantú

March 12, 2021 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chico, California

A series of killings by the police sparked a community-led movement urging greater accountability and better training. The campaign bore fruit when the Chico mayor formed a committee to examine use of force policies. While police-reform advocates got appointed to the committee, the panel was dominated by the police and their political allies. Use of force policies never got examined. The city, in fact, ended up giving the police more resources and power. One policing critic concludes from this episode that professionalizing the police without scrutinizing their mission is bound to fail.

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43 Cases, No Convictions: Prosecuting the Police Falters in New York

Jonah Engel Bromwich Sarah Maslin Nir Benjamin Weiser

February 26, 2021 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York

In the more than five years since New York's governor ordered the attorney general to take charge of investigations and prosecutions when police kill unarmed people, only three police officers have been charged with crimes and none has been convicted. By taking control of such cases away from local prosecutors, officials hoped to instill greater trust in outcomes, because of the close ties local prosecutors have with local police. But the narrow scope of the rule establishing the special prosecutions unit, plus a host of other systemic and legal barriers, have meant that the outcomes have not changed.

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Durham, NC Just Finished Erasing $2.7 Million In Traffic Debt

Cinnamon Janzer

February 17, 2021 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

The DEAR program (Durham Expunction and Restoration) put 11,084 drivers back on the road legally and waived $2.7 million in fines in a purge of old cases that had revoked driving privileges for unpaid fines and fees. The two-year amnesty program, part of a national movement, took aim at the often racially disparate enforcement of state laws that burden the formerly incarcerated and others with unaffordable monetary penalties. Deprived of the right to drive, people either miss out on work and educational opportunities, or risk more traffic tickets, arrests, and fines.

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‘Crime-Free' Housing Ordinances, Explained

Deborah N. Archer

February 17, 2021 |

The Appeal |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Starting in the early 1990s, thousands of American towns and cities passed "crime-free housing" ordinances that purport to reduce crime in rental housing. The laws encourage or require landlords to evict tenants based on calls to police, or the criminal records of tenants or their houseguests. The laws' lack of due process has turned them into a tool promoting segregation and retaliation against people of color. Frequently enacted in places that have begun to diversify racially, they give police too much power to declare certain residences a nuisance. Legal challenges have begun to curb some abuses.

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Denver successfully sent mental health professionals, not police, to hundreds of calls

Grace Hauck

February 06, 2021 |

USA Today |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

In its first six months, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) handled 748 emergency calls that in the past would have gone to the police or firefighters. Two-person teams of a medic and clinician helped people with personal crises related mainly to homelessness and mental illness. None of the calls required police involvement and no one was arrested. The city plans to spend more to expand the program, which is meant to prevent needless violence and incarceration from calls to the police that other types of first-responders can better address.

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Inside the L.A.P.D.'s Experiment in Trust-Based Policing

Michaela Haas

February 05, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

The Community Safety Partnership Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department has worked for a decade in 10 neighborhoods to prevent crime through building trust among residents, rather than through the LAPD's costly and troubled war on gangs. One study found that through long-term involvement in neighborhood life, with highly trained officers working closely with community organizers, CSP had helped increase public trust, save public money, and lower violent crime.

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This Honduran lawyer reunites families separated at the US-Mexico border. It involves difficult road trips — and detective work.

Michelle Wiley

February 04, 2021 |

Public Radio International (PRI) |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Honduras

Justice In Motion helps Central American people who were separated from their children by the U.S. government when they attempted to migrate into the U.S. One lawyer in Honduras has succeeded many times in her three dozen searches for parents who lost contact with their children and themselves are hard to find. Justice In Motion and its allies are suing the government and try to help parents with their asylum petitions, in addition to seeking family reunification.

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A GOP Governor and BLM Activists Agreed on Restoring Voting Rights to Felons. Will It Last?

Kaila Philo

February 04, 2021 |

Politico |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Iowa

More than 3,000 Iowans voted in the 2020 presidential election thanks to an executive order signed by the Republican governor after a protest campaign by activists to erase Iowa's permanent ban on voting by people with felony records. But that number was just a fraction of those newly eligible to vote, due to limitations in the order and a lackluster effort to inform the public. Iowa has a disproportionately high number of disenfranchised Black citizens who could be helped by a more permanent constitutional fix. That fix has now been stalled by the choice to act by executive order.

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