DC launching real-time crime center to monitor surveillance cameras

D.C. police will launch a real-time crime center at Metropolitan Police Department headquarters to monitor surveillance cameras around the clock.

Police are entering agreements with federal law enforcement and police from Maryland and Virginia. The agreements involve U.S. Park Police, U.S. Capitol Police and the Secret Service.

The crime center will monitor surveillance cameras 24/7, every day of the year.

Full story: DC launching real-time crime center to monitor surveillance cameras

Philadelphia reduces school-based arrests by 91% since 2013 – researchers explain the effects of keeping kids out of the legal system

Drexel researchers evaluated a 2014 program implemented by Kevin Bethel when he was deputy police commissioner that led to fewer arrests of students in schools.

At the same time, violent crime dropped, contradicting many officers’ claims that a ‘get out of jail free card’ may lead youth to commit more crimes.

 

Full story: Philadelphia reduces school-based arrests by 91% since 2013 – researchers explain the effects of keeping kids out of the legal system

Less traffic enforcement could mean more traffic deaths in Austin, city audit finds

Less traffic enforcement by law enforcement may have caused the number of fatal traffic incidents to increase in Austin in recent years, according to an audit released by the city last week.

In addition to looking at Austin, auditors looked at the resources of Dallas, San Antonio and Seattle, and found that each city has seen a reduction in the number of traffic citations over the past few years and an increase in the number of traffic deaths.

These findings come as Austin and the three other cities continue to face staffing shortages in their police departments. Auditors also noted that there were fewer crashes and deaths during the deployment of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers earlier this year.

Full story: Less traffic enforcement could mean more traffic deaths in Austin, city audit finds

As mass shootings multiplied, the horrific human cost was concealed

After a burst of gun violence claimed 13 lives at Columbine High School in 1999, a difficult question confronted a Colorado judge: whether to order the release of autopsies sought by local media under the state’s public records law.

The judge, Jose D.L. Márquez, decided to keep the graphic reports hidden, ruling that the rampage was an “extraordinary event” that lawmakers could not have anticipated when they wrote the law. As evidence, he cited the “unique factor” of the community’s trauma, illustrated by an outpouring of grief and a presidential visit.

A quarter-century after Columbine, then the deadliest mass shooting ever visited on a high school, the reactions highlighted by the judge — including public memorials and visits from politicians — are no longer signs of an extraordinary event. They’re routine grief rites.

But as gun violence has grown more common, state lawmakers have increasingly restricted access to government records documenting its destructive impact, such as photos and videos showing mutilated bodies and audio recordings capturing children’s cries.

Full story: As mass shootings multiplied, the horrific human cost was concealed

Most school shootings aren’t mass killings, study finds, and they’re often driven by community violence | CNN

Many Americans think of school shootings as mass casualty events involving an adolescent with an assault-style weapon. But a new study says that most recent school shootings orchestrated by teenagers do not fit that image — and they are often related to community violence…

Full story: Most school shootings aren’t mass killings, study finds, and they’re often driven by community violence | CNN