Advanced filters

Search Results

You searched for:  -

There are 525 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • In Denver, This Program Helps Reroute 911 Calls To Police Alternatives

    September 12, 2020 |

    NPR |

    Radio |

    3-5 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    In its first three months of existence, Denver's STAR program sent medics and counselors to respond to more than 600 calls to 911 in place of the police and without ever having to call the police as backup in a violent confrontation. The calls dealt mainly with complaints about unhoused people who callers complained were trespassing. Instead of the police approach, which often is to see such people as a threat, the STAR team sees them as people needing help. Such calls diverted from police end up connecting people with necessary social services and avoid possible violence or unnecessary incarceration.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Spy planes provide modest help to Baltimore crime fight over three months, researchers find

    September 11, 2020 |

    The Baltimore Sun |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

    After three months of a pilot project putting video-equipped planes in flight over Baltimore, police made arrests in 21% of the 81 cases in which video evidence was provided. The arrest rate is slightly greater than in the many more cases that were not aided by aerial video. But researchers and police have not concluded from the evidence that the project is effective enough to continue after its six-month, privately funded run. Civil liberties advocates have challenged use of the so-called spy planes, which the city hopes will help combat its high rate of homicides and other violent crimes.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Portland's High Stakes Experiment to Shrink the Role of Police in Fighting Gun Violence

    September 10, 2020 |

    The Trace |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

    Two years after reorganizing a police gun-enforcement unit to focus it on an evidence-based approach to preventing retaliatory shootings, Portland city leaders abolished the unit in a round of police budget cuts and failed to reinvest that money in community-based alternatives that don't rely on the police. The result, criminologists say, is a worst-case scenario: a policing reform that creates a vacuum and could be to blame for an alarming spike in gun violence. The most effective solutions, they say, blend effective policing with proven community-based programs.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • NYPD Study: Implicit Bias Training Changes Minds, Not Necessarily Behavior

    September 10, 2020 |

    NPR |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    After all 36,000 New York Police Department officers took required training in recognizing implicit racial bias, more officers understood how racism may increase officers' aggressiveness but there was no evidence that this awareness translated into a less racially disparate outcome in the numbers of people stopped and frisked. Since the protests of police bias that started in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, most states have imposed mandatory implicit-bias training on police. NYPD's study is a rare measurement of the effects such training can have.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.

    September 06, 2020 |

    The Denver Post |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    To avoid unnecessary arrests and reduce police-public friction, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) sends a mental health professional and a paramedic to some mental-health-related 911 calls instead of sending police. In the first three months of the pilot program, the STAR team – covering only certain areas of the city during weekdays – handled 350 calls without needing police backup. STAR builds on a 4-year-old program pairing Denver police with mental health professionals. That program handled 2,223 calls in 2019 and is expanding.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • In CAHOOTS in Oregon

    September 04, 2020 |

    Voices of Monterey Bay |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

    Oregon's CAHOOTS program has succeeded in replacing police on many mental-health crisis calls over its 30-year history because it is integrated in a larger system of services, including law enforcement. CAHOOTS' crisis workers, who cover the cities of Eugene and Springfield with three vans taking dozens of calls for help a day, come to their jobs with expertise as EMTs, nurses, or social workers. Then they spend 500 hours of training in crisis management and de-escalation, learning to offer help without forcing it, and without the threat of arrest except in the few cases when police backup is needed.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Drones Have Earned Their Place in Small-Town Wisconsin

    September 04, 2020 |

    Government Technology |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, Linn, Wisconsin

    A drone program has helped the small town of Linn find missing people, rescue people in medical distress, and find multiple drowning victims in the town's lake. Police now spend less time conducting searches and have saved lives with their eye in the sky. By carefully developing policies and by practicing transparency, making flight logs public, the town has eased privacy concerns and earned enough community support to pay for the latest drones with donations.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Where Calling the Police Isn't the Only Option

    September 03, 2020 |

    Bloomberg CityLab |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    As the "defund-the-police" campaign sparks interest in alternatives to police-only responses to crises involving mental illness or similar problems, cities as disparate as Eugene, Oregon, and Stockholm serve as exemplars of ways to handle thousands of calls per year without involving the police. Like Eugene's CAHOOTS program, Stockholm's Psykiatrisk Akut Mobilitet (PAM) sends mental health and medical professionals to help people suffering mental crises. Now Oakland, Portland, Denver, New York, and other cities are exploring how to customize such programs to their own communities' needs.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Interest in Community Police Watch Training Soars as Courses Go Online

    September 02, 2020 |

    San Francisco Public Press |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

    Groups in the Bay Area that have successfully sought to have police disciplined for misconduct and won new police-accountability policies have turned their form of organized monitoring into a training platform for protesters nationwide. Responding to widespread Black Lives Matter protests, groups like Berkeley Copwatch and Wecopwatch use online education to teach hundreds of activists nationwide how to use videotape archives to systematically document abuses, and how to perform the work of legal observers at protests. Those activities are meant to act as deterrents to abuse.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • New York Police Change Attitudes After Implicit-Bias Training

    August 30, 2020 |

    Wall Street Journal |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    Mandatory implicit-bias training for all New York Police Department officers influenced the thinking and behavior of a majority of the department, but there is no proof that it reduced racial and ethnic disparities in the department's enforcement practices. A survey conducted after the $5.5 million, 2018-19 training program found that 70% of officers reported a better understanding of the problem and 58% said they attempted to put the coaching they received into practice. The training was aimed at increasing officers' awareness of their racial biases in order to improve relations with the community.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

Solutions In Focus

Discover curated content about themes that matter to you, exclusively from the Solutions Story Tracker. Explore collections, resources and more.


Go to All Solutions in Focus