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As the public pressure mounts to reform policing in America, examples have cropped up across the country that indicate the power dynamic with some police unions has shifted – whether by choice or force. Some union leaders have taken up reins to try to lead change, and others have made concessions after facing public backlash. And some unions are fighting to maintain their power as outside groups try to strip them of their control.

Full story: How the push and pull of unions is hindering police reform around the country

Attorney General Merrick Garland has taken action to end sentencing disparities that have imposed harsher penalties for different forms of cocaine and worsened racial inequity in the U.S…

Full story: Garland moves to end disparities in crack cocaine sentencing

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York City police department reached a legal settlement Friday that requires it to abandon a practice in which officers use prolonged street stops to check for arrest warrants and ties to other cases, a tactic critics denounced as “digital stop and frisk.”

Full story: NYPD ends tactic of prolonging stops to check for warrants

Prison wardens and other officials knew of the risk to inmates, the lawsuit alleges, because at least two other prisoners died from the heat on the T-unit in recent years…

Full story: Alabama inmate ‘literally baked to death’ in overheated prison cell, says lawsuit

The Washington Post traced the fentanyl crisis from the back alleys of northern Mexico, to official Washington. U.S. border authorities are now overwhelmed…

Full story: Overview: From Mexican labs to U.S. streets, a lethal pipeline

Five Louisiana law enforcement officers were charged Thursday with state crimes ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, a death authorities initially blamed on a car crash before long suppressed body-camera video showed officers beating, stunning and dragging the motorist as he wailed, “I’m scared!”..

Full story: 5 La. officers charged in motorist’s deadly 2019 arrest

Gun violence recently surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for American children…

Full story: Childhood’s Greatest Danger: The Data on Kids and Gun Violence – The New York Times

The bill that passed the House on Wednesday will amend a 1968 federal crime law to authorize $70 million in annual grant funding for law enforcement training on alternatives to the use of force that include scenario-based exercises for officers. It will also require the Justice Department to develop a series of curriculum and training topics in partnership with stakeholders like law enforcement and civil liberties groups and mental health professionals…

Full story: Congress passes bill to fund police de-escalation training | AP News

A court ruling says a Jewish death row inmate who was part of the “Texas 7” should have his conviction overturned and get a new trial because the judge presiding over his case “harbored antisemitic bias.”..

Full story: Judge: Texas Death Row Inmate Should Get New, Unbiased Trial

Records reviewed by The Times this week show that Edwards told the Virginia State Police that he had voluntarily checked himself into a mental health facility in 2016. A Virginia criminal law expert told The Times the disclosure should have triggered further investigation by the Virginia State Police before Edwards was hired…

Full story: Virginia governor asks for probe into hiring of ‘catfishing’ cop – Los Angeles Times