Back in February, when Christopher Dorner was busy killing cops, two unarmed hispanic women delivering newspapers in a blue Toyota Tacoma were shot at 100 times because the cops were afraid it was a Dorner, black man, driving a gray Nissan Titan. Now I’m not normally one to criticize police… And indeed, I wasn’t there… And yet… The cops just…
Category: Police
Now Hiring
The Nueva Leon (Mexico) Fuerza Civil needs you! I picked this up at recruiting stand in the Mexico City subway last month. Here’s a CBC (Canadian) story about the area. According to Fox News Latino: The Fuerza Civil is an elite unit “trained in military and police techniques, receive a college level education, which include ethics classes, and are paid…
Institutional Review Board advice
What can universities do to improve the IRB? Zachary Schrag, Professor of History at George Mason University and the author of, Ethical Imperialism: Institutional Review Boards and the Social Sciences, 1965-2009, summarizes what your school can do (in ten easy steps).
Cop Down at MIT
Can we make a new rule for killers? “Know your victims.” It may not help the victim, but it does help everybody else. Update 12:15am: Word is the officer has died. I think it’s safe to assume this is the first MIT police officer to be killed in the line of duty. My condolences and sincere hopes this situation resolves…
New Tool for Police Officers
Using tech and smart phones to help police. This is great, right? I can’t think of downside. Am I missing something? Kudos to the NYPD.
Why You Never Chase
Three years ago I wrote this piecefor a local New York City paper. If you replace New Yorker Karen Schmeer with Baltimorean Matthew Hersl, nothing has changed. Karen Schmeer was the friend of a friend. Matthew Hersl was the brother of a guy I worked with and knew from the police academy. I bought my car from his nephew, I…
Stop, Question, and Frisk in court
From the Times: Mr. Esposito insisted that a supervisor could conclude that a stop was legal based on reviewing that form alone. “If it’s filled out properly, it gives you reasonable suspicion. And if you have reasonable suspicion established, then you do not have racial profiling,” Mr. Esposito said. “It’s as simple as that.” Except it’s not. Here’s the “UF-250.”…
Police officers’ opinions on gun violence and gun control
A summary of the results of a survey of 15,000 police officers by Police One.
Cops Wearing Cameras
Better for police than most police think. From the New York Times.
Gun Guys, by Dan Baum
I finished reading Gun Guys, and it’s very good. Here’s Dan Baum talking about his book on the BBC. And here he a more in-depth interview with Dan Baum on KMO’s C-Realm Podcast (which just happens to have been recorded in my basement). [Update: and here is Baum in the New York Times.] Baum makes the point that nothing productive…