Virtual-reality could assist researchers in decoding how emotions spur a decision to commit a crime.
DoJ Launches ‘Justice AI’ to Study Use of AI in Criminal Justice
Lisa Monaco, deputy attorney general at the Justice Department (DoJ), announced last week the launch of Justice AI – a new initiative that aims to understand and prepare for how the emerging technology will affect the criminal justice system.
Full story: DoJ Launches ‘Justice AI’ to Study Use of AI in Criminal Justice
Proposal would let noncitizens serve as police officers, firefighters in Denver
Should noncitizens be able to serve as Denver police officers and firefighters? Some Denver City Council members want to change the city’s charter to make it possible.
Right now, Denver’s city charter requires anyone applying to become a police officer or firefighter to be a U.S. citizen. Denver City Council President Jamie Torres says that limits the pool of applicants.
Torres and Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval are developing a proposal that, if approved by voters, would change the city charter, allowing applicants without U.S. citizenship to serve as police officers and firefighters. Torres said this would include Dreamers or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, who were brought to the U.S. as children.
Full story: Proposal would let noncitizens serve as police officers, firefighters in Denver
More criminal suspects are shooting at Minnesota police officers, data show – Minnesota Reformer
Violent assaults on police officers have risen sharply in recent years, according to the comprehensive data included in the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s Uniform Crime Reports. But those assaults rarely turn fatal: From 2004 to 2023, 11 Minnesota police officers died in the line of duty, according to the BCA data.
That relative rarity is part of what makes the recent shootings in Burnsville, where a man fatally shot two police officers and a paramedic before turning the gun on himself, so shocking. It’s not the kind of thing that happens here.
In 2019, there were about 400 violent assaults on Minnesota police officers, according to the BCA data. By 2023, those attacks had more than doubled, to more than 900.
Full story: More criminal suspects are shooting at Minnesota police officers, data show – Minnesota Reformer
Minnesota shooting highlights danger of domestic violence calls for first responders and victims
Two police officers and a firefighter were killed in Minnesota while responding to a domestic dispute involving a suspect previously convicted of assault and accused of domestic violence, a type of call experts say can be among the most dangerous for first responders and those they’re trying to help.
Though each case is unique, domestic violence and law enforcement experts said several factors, including the presence of firearms and a history of violence, can make such confrontations more deadly for all involved.
“At a time when there’s high emotions, some hopelessness involved, the outcome is always going to be unpredictable,” said Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. “So for an officer, it is one of the most dangerous calls that we go to.”
Full story: Minnesota shooting highlights danger of domestic violence calls for first responders and victims
Leading the digital beat: LAPD’s deputy chief talks technology’s role in shaping the future of policing
Deputy Chief John McMahon discusses the LAPD’s adoption of advanced technologies, aiming to boost efficiency, improve community interaction and address the policing challenges of tomorrow…
Full story: Leading the digital beat: LAPD’s deputy chief talks technology’s role in shaping the future of policing
Oregon’s drug decriminalization aimed to make police a gateway to rehab, not jail. State leaders failed to make it work – OPB
Ballot Measure 110, approved by voters in 2020, created a new role for law enforcement in Oregon. While there’s evidence people living with addiction in the state are increasingly finding their way into treatment, the failure to turn police encounters into successful on-ramps to rehab has been cited by critics as prime evidence the measure isn’t working. Oregon lawmakers, noting an ongoing rise in overdose deaths, are now looking to restore jail time for drug possession.
But Oregon’s political leaders themselves played central roles in failing to deliver on the potential for law enforcement to connect people with lifesaving services under the new measure, documents and interviews with a wide array of people involved in the system indicate.
The Legislature, the court system and the bureaucracy under two governors ignored or rejected proposed solutions as seemingly straightforward as designing a specialized ticket to highlight treatment information. They declined to fund a proposed $50,000 online course that would have instructed police officers on how to better use the new law. They took no action on recommendations to get police, whose leaders campaigned against the ballot measure, talking with treatment providers after decriminalization passed.
Criminals Who Misuse AI Face Stiffer Sentences in DOJ Crackdown
The Justice Department’s No. 2 official is directing federal prosecutors to try imposing harsher penalties against criminals who’ve used AI to advance their misconduct.
“Going forward, where Department of Justice prosecutors can seek stiffer sentences for offenses made significantly more dangerous by the misuse of AI, they will,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Wednesday at the University of Oxford in the UK.
As the law develops in response to rapidly emerging generative technology, DOJ is already leveraging existing statutes to combat the harms of artificial intelligence in contexts such as election security, anti-discrimination, price fixing, and identify theft, Monaco said at an event on the promise and perils of AI in criminal justice.
Full story: Criminals Who Misuse AI Face Stiffer Sentences in DOJ Crackdown
Training center opponents torch patrol car outside officer’s home | Georgia Public Broadcasting
Atlanta Police are searching for two opponents of the city’s controversial public safety training center who set fire to an officer’s patrol car outside his home in Lakewood Heights.
The incident occurred before dawn on Saturday morning. Several social media accounts connected to the “Stop Cop City” movement claimed responsibility and said more acts of civil disobedience were forthcoming.
At a Saturday night press conference, Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said investigator’s obtained search warrants and raided a home on Harper Road in southeast Atlanta looking for the two suspects related to the arson.
Full story: Training center opponents torch patrol car outside officer’s home | Georgia Public Broadcasting
Officer killed in stabbing before suspect is shot and killed by witness, police say
A New Mexico police officer was fatally stabbed over the weekend while responding to a trespassing report and a witness to the attack apparently shot and killed the suspect before calling on the officer’s radio for help, authorities said Monday.
The fatal stabbing and shooting took place late Sunday in Las Cruces, about 225 miles (360 kilometers) south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and some 45 miles (75 kilometers) northwest of El Paso, Texas.
Las Cruces police said Patrol Officer Jonah Hernandez, 35, was stabbed at least once Sunday afternoon and died at a hospital where he was taken.
The suspect in the stabbing, a 29-year-old man, was believed to have been shot and killed by the same witness, according to police. They said the witness used the officer’s police radio to call for help afterward.
Full story: Officer killed in stabbing before suspect is shot and killed by witness, police say