Police body cameras were supposed to ensure transparency and also serve as a deterrent to officers who might otherwise brutalize a suspect. They were supposed to win public trust. To some degree, such cameras have fulfilled these promises, but the technology isn’t...
Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on October 20, 2014. Almost exactly four years later, Van Dyke, 40, was convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery – a count for every bullet fired at McDonald....
Last year, Bijan Ghaisar died ten days after the National Park Police in Virginia opened fire and shot the unarmed 25-year-old motorist four times in the head at point-blank range after a minor collision. A total of nine shots were fired. Since the shooting on...
On January 10, 2019, Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied a search warrant for an Oakland property. Her ruling has far-reaching effects because the warrant had to do with a Facebook extortion crime,...
California has the dubious distinction of being the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to releasing police disciplinary records, but last year lawmakers approved SB 1421, which went into effect on January 1. Now, in response to a California Public...
