At least for the first three months of 2008. Hopefully it will last. Here’s the Sun’s story by John Fritze and Sara Neufeld. There’s a nice Sun news graphic in the story. It’s rarely mentioned that what looks like a steady decline in homicides in the 1990s correlates pretty well with the decline in the city’s population. So while the…
If that statement shocks you, you’re a fool. All cops don’t tell the truth all of the time. But cops tell the truth a lot more than many people seem to think. At least in Baltimore there is no culture of lying on the stand or anywhere else. Why would I perjure myself and risk my job and my reputation…
I was on the subway today, reading the Atlantic Monthly(or is it just The Atlantic?… no matter, it’s my favorite magazine…. with the New Yorkerplacing a close second and the Economistto show). I see a book review for Judith Herrin’s Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. I like Professor Herrin. I took a class from her in Byzantine…
Steve Lopez of the L.A. Times has a good take on cameras in police cars.
The New York Times has an excellent article by Michael Brick on a large police operation meant to get drugs out of the Cypress Hills project. Guess what, there are still drugs in Cypress Hills. In many ways, it’s great police work (and conceivable right of The Wire). A five-month investigation, undercover officers moving into the projects and pretending they’re…
The smart folks at Marginal Revolution mentioned my book again. There’s nothing I like talking about more than foot patrol. The following are taken mostly from a comment I wrote to this post. The Kansas City Preventative Patrol experiment is the most amazingly ignored police study ever. For police and crime prevention, it’s one of the few scientific studies ever…
Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weiss says he plans more foot and bike patrol and an emphasis on “broken windows” policing. This is great news for Chicago… if it actually happens. It’s tough to get cops out of cars. But Weiss is certainly saying the right things. This is reported in the Sun Times. The point of getting tough on the…
Seattle is trying poach New York City’s police. They’re actively recruiting in New York City. The Daily News reports: Seattle pays its police recruits $47,334 a year and the annual salary rises to a maximum base pay of $67,045 in just six years. NYPD recruits get a paltry $25,100 annual salary while they are in the academy. Their pay jumps…
Richard Gonzales of National Public Radio report that California is pulling in $100 million a year in taxes from medical marijuana. This is a federal crime. The main opposition to medical marijuana comes from Big Government Conservatives. Big Government Prohibitionists would be a better label. They have a moral agenda and are only conservative (states’ rights be damned) in the…
My thanks to Marni Soupcoff of the (Canadian) National Post for her kind words about my blog. She’s right, the real purpose of this blog is to get people to buy my book, Cop in the Hood. And she did! So thanks, Marni. Hopefully the weak dollar will inspire many others up north to buy a copy as well. I…