Policing Matters

A new non-fiction book entitled "The Valley of the Shadow of Death — A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption" is a riveting read about crime, race, gangs, the death penalty, and African American victims of violent crime. It was co-authored by former NFL defensive back Kermit Alexander, with Criminal Justice Professors Alex Gerould and Jeff Snipes. Alexander’s mother, sister, and two nephews were brutally murdered on August 31, 1984. Publisher’s Weekly called the book a “compelling narrative that rivals a first-rate thriller,” and that description is completely accurate. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug sit down with Professor Gerould to discuss how the book came to be and what lessons it offers for readers.

Body cameras, drones, Shotspotter, analytics, GPS … police work has evolved significantly over the past couple of decades as new technologies such as these have been introduced, adopted, and utilized. In this podcast episode, Jim and Doug discuss some of the top technologies that have helped improve police work, and what may be on the horizon.

The 1968 Supreme Court Decision in Terry v. Ohio held that a person’s Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when a police officer stops a subject and frisks him as long as the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime and has a reasonable belief that the person may be armed. However, some civil rights organizations contend that a number of agencies took advantage of this ruling to inappropriately stop and frisk people without being able to articulate that reasonable suspicion. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the fact that officers must be able to report in detail (in a narrative form, not just check boxes) what led them to stop and frisk an individual.

Gang injunctions prohibit illegal activities and impose restrictions on behavior of named gang members such as displaying colors or associating in public with other gang members. Gang injunctions restrain the movement of named gang members in certain areas, typically called safety zones. Gang injunctions are the result of significant investigative legwork by the police, who have to provide the court with detailed documentation about the individuals named in the injunction. However, organizations like the ACLU say that gang injunctions lead to “serious civil liberties violations” and suggest job programs and job training instead. In this week’s podcast, Jim and Doug discuss the efficacy and fairness of gang injunctions.

In California there is a proposal to allow bars to keep serving until four o’clock in the morning. Other states have similarly late (or early, depending on how you look at the clock) last call times. Alaska has last call at five in the morning, for example. Most cities in Florida close at 3AM — it's up to the communities to decide. In Louisiana, bars can technically serve 24 hours a day if there's no local law stating that they can't. In New York City closing time is four in the morning, but most municipalities throughout the state close at two. Jim and Doug discuss how much trouble tends to happen at closing time — disputes, altercations, DUI arrests — and why four o’clock last call is not a good idea.

Try to think if you’ve heard this one before: A man uses a vehicle as a weapon in a terrorist attack. That sounds familiar because this method of has become commonplace ever since ISIS and Al Qaeda began promoting it in their online instructional magazines. It recently happened in Stockholm, Sweden — an attack that left four people dead. In December 2016, a truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and wounding nearly 50 others. A Somali-born student at Ohio State University crashed his car into a crowd of pedestrians in November before getting out and stabbing several of them with a butcher knife. Meanwhile, agencies across America are instituting policies that all but prohibit shooting at violent subjects in vehicles. Jim and Doug discuss why they feel “no shooting at vehicles, ever” policies don’t make sense.

Police Week, the annual event that honors all of the fallen officers throughout American history, is arguably the most powerful event LEOs can attend. Doug and Jim discuss the importance of the gathering, and why all police officers across the country should go at least once.

In April 2017, a man named Steve Stevens murdered an elderly man out for a walk. Stevens then posted a video of his crime on Facebook, where the footage remained visible for hours. This is not the first time that a criminal has posted pictures or video of their criminal acts on social media. Jim and Doug discuss the prevalence of these types of incidents, as well as some ideas about how to deal with them from a criminal prosecution perspective.

Individuals and groups who staunchly support the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms it affords have in recent years taken to carrying their firearms openly in public. They do this in order to visibly call attention to rights that they believe are in jeopardy of being taken from them by politicians who race to the television cameras every time a high-profile shooting happens. The trouble is, many Americans have never even held a gun, much less shot one. And people tend to fear what they don’t understand. So when six “guys with guns” show up at the coffee shop, police are usually called. In this podcast episode, Jim and Doug discuss the issues in play when police respond to calls involving open-carry advocates.

On April 15 (tax day) pro-Trump individuals wearing American Flags and “Make America Great Again” baseball hats held a rally in Berkeley, California. They had notified Berkeley Police in advance of their intention to rally. However, when anarchists clad in black masks and wielding various weapons showed up, officers from the Berkeley PD stood back and allowed the two sides to get involved in a prolonged violent confrontation. This is not what most police agencies would call crowd control. Jim and Doug talk about what should have happened but didn't.

Some of the most important U.S. Supreme Court cases for law enforcement are either misunderstood or entirely unknown by the average American citizen. Meanwhile, law enforcement officers are generally very much in tune with the cases which govern how officers’ actions — everything from use of force to search and seizure activities — are judged. In this podcast episode, Jim and Doug talk about a host of cases that cops know about and wish that the public did too.

We've seen a significant increase in news articles on PoliceOne about civilians coming to the aid of officers involved in violent confrontations with resistive subjects. Are there more of these incidents happening, or are they just getting more attention in the media? Jim and Doug offer thoughts on whether or not there’s an increase in such events.

Earlier this year, Kate’s Law was reintroduced to Congress, which is now controlled by Republicans. President Donald Trump has vowed that he will sign it. The law is named for Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was fatally shot by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a Mexican national and convicted felon who had been deported but returned — illegally — to the United States. Steinle is not the only high-profile victim of crime committed by people here in the United States illegally — there are many other tragedies like hers. But how big an issue is criminal activity committed by illegal immigrants? Jim and Doug discuss the issue in detail.

Elections have consequences, and President Donald Trump's pick to serve as Attorney General and lead the Department of Justice may be one of the biggest consequences for American law enforcement. Put simply, Jeff Sessions represents “a new sheriff” at DOJ. It’s likely that Sessions will take resources that under Loretta Lynch — and Eric Holder before her — had been put toward initiatives related to things like same-sex marriage and gender identity, and reallocate those resources toward efforts on national security, terrorism, organized crime, and international gangs. Jim and Doug discuss other ways in which the DOJ will differ in the next four years from the DOJ of the previous administration.

For the past several years, interest in Evidence-Based Policing has skyrocketed. An extension of evidence-based medicine, this form of analytical research (using control groups and other scientific methodologies) has helped forward-thinking agencies to better understand the challenges they face, and the solutions that make the most sense to solve those problems. In this week's podcast, Jim and Doug welcome guests Renee Mitchell and Jason Potts, co-founders of the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, to discuss what EBP actually is, and why line-level officers should not only care about it, but actively work to use it.

Kids have been abusing various substances for decades. Tobacco, marijuana, hashish, and cold medications top the list. Kids have been "huffing" inhalants (gasoline, ammonia, glue, and even spray paint) for years. Kids have gotten into heavier drugs like barbiturates, cocaine, meth, heroin, codeine, oxycodone, Vicodin, and a host of others. A new high popular with young people is pharmaceutical-strength Promethazine and Codeine. In this week's podcast, Jim and Doug discuss the dangers of "Purple Drank."

Back in September 2016, 11 SWAT cops were hospitalized after a flash-bang tossed into an alleged stash house kicked up powdered fentanyl and heroin. This deadly opioid poses real risks to police officers, as fentanyl can be compared to taking 500 to 1,000 codeine pills – or fifteen times more potent than heroin. In this week's podcast, Jim and Doug discuss what officers need to keep in mind with regard to handling fentanyl.

In December 2014, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The president charged the task force with identifying best practices and offering recommendations on how policing practices can promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. The task force released its final report in May of 2015. In it was what the task force called the “Six Pillars of 21st Century Policing.” Over the course of the last six weeks, Jim and Doug have discussed each of the six pillars. In this week’s podcast, Jim and Doug each offer thoughts on what they would add as the seventh pillar.

In December 2014, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The president charged the task force with identifying best practices and offering recommendations on how policing practices can promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. The task force released its final report in May of 2015. In it was what the task force called the “Six Pillars of 21st Century Policing.” In this week’s podcast, Jim and Doug discuss the sixth and final pillar — Officer Wellness and Safety.

In December 2014, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The president charged the task force with identifying best practices and offering recommendations on how policing practices can promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. The task force released its final report in May of 2015. In it was what the task force called the “Six Pillars of 21st Century Policing.” In this week’s podcast, Jim and Doug discuss the fifth pillar — Training and Education — and next week will tackle the final pillar.