Author: Christopher Marier

California bans doctors and medical examiners from attributing deaths to ‘excited delirium,’ a term often applied to Black men in police custody… Full story: California bans controversial ‘excited delirium’ diagnosis

Similar to the message-board style app Nextdoor, Neighbors encourages people with Ring cameras, and others who join the platform independently, to share information to keep their neighborhoods “safe.” People can use Neighbors to publish footage alongside their posts; when the posts are forwarded to police officers, officers can click through to view the accompanying media.…

It’s the first time in Colorado’s history that a city has entered into a consent decree agreement with the state, and it was made possible by a law passed in the wake of Elijah McClain’s death. This week, criminal trials for the three officers who forcibly stopped and subdued McClain are underway. That may result…

The Cambridge Police Department officer who shot and killed 20-year-old Sayed Faisal in January will not be prosecuted after a Massachusetts judge found his actions to be “objectively reasonable.” The finding by Massachusetts District Court Judge John F. Coffey comes at the close of a monthslong investigation by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office into the…

The number of guns found in schools—hidden in backpacks, waistbands and lockers—has spiked in recent years, impacting hundreds of thousands of students… Full story: The number of guns found in U.S. schools has spiked, The Post found – The Washington Post

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that makes it easier for authorities to compel treatment for people with mental illness or addiction issues… Full story: New California law aims to force people with mental illness or addiction to get help | AP News

One of the police programs that helped achieve those results is expanding to a troubled South Dallas apartment complex, where residents Monday said they welcome the extra attention… Full story: Police program in Dallas to expand after new report shows decline in violent crimes

Cops use all sorts of tech to track individuals. But some people are finding ways to use technology to listen back. Bluetooth signals might reveal where police are and when devices like body cams or Tasers are activated. All Bluetooth devices have a unique 64-bit identifier called a MAC address. Often a chunk of that…

Ten months ago, Stacy Chapin was thrust into the center of the nation’s obsession with true crime, as armies of podcast listeners, internet commentators, and amateur sleuths were consumed by the mystery of how her son, Ethan Chapin, and three other University of Idaho students had been stabbed to death late one night in a…

Last year, the White House publicly shot down a controversial proposal from Republican lawmakers to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, or WMD. Though President Joe Biden declined to issue the executive order granting the WMD designation, which would have come with extraordinary powers to combat the scourge, federal agencies — including the…