Policing Matters

According to the Los Angeles County Probation Department, transit fare evasion is the number one cause of juvenile citations in Los Angeles County. The California Senate recently passed legislation that prohibits youths from being charged with a criminal violation for transit fare evasion and instead treats the offense like a parking ticket. California State Senator Robert Hertzberg — who introduced the legislation — said, "No kid should go to jail or be charged with a crime simply because he or she can’t pay to ride the bus or train." Kids will receive a fine, similar to parking tickets.

A new non-fiction book entitled "The Valley of the Shadow of Death — A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption" is a riveting read about crime, race, gangs, the death penalty, and African American victims of violent crime. It was co-authored by former NFL defensive back Kermit Alexander, with Criminal Justice Professors Alex Gerould and Jeff Snipes. Alexander’s mother, sister, and two nephews were brutally murdered on August 31, 1984. Publisher’s Weekly called the book a “compelling narrative that rivals a first-rate thriller,” and that description is completely accurate. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug sit down with Professor Gerould to discuss how the book came to be and what lessons it offers for readers.

Body cameras, drones, Shotspotter, analytics, GPS … police work has evolved significantly over the past couple of decades as new technologies such as these have been introduced, adopted, and utilized. In this podcast episode, Jim and Doug discuss some of the top technologies that have helped improve police work, and what may be on the horizon.

The 1968 Supreme Court Decision in Terry v. Ohio held that a person’s Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when a police officer stops a subject and frisks him as long as the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime and has a reasonable belief that the person may be armed. However, some civil rights organizations contend that a number of agencies took advantage of this ruling to inappropriately stop and frisk people without being able to articulate that reasonable suspicion. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the fact that officers must be able to report in detail (in a narrative form, not just check boxes) what led them to stop and frisk an individual.

Gang injunctions prohibit illegal activities and impose restrictions on behavior of named gang members such as displaying colors or associating in public with other gang members. Gang injunctions restrain the movement of named gang members in certain areas, typically called safety zones. Gang injunctions are the result of significant investigative legwork by the police, who have to provide the court with detailed documentation about the individuals named in the injunction. However, organizations like the ACLU say that gang injunctions lead to “serious civil liberties violations” and suggest job programs and job training instead. In this week’s podcast, Jim and Doug discuss the efficacy and fairness of gang injunctions.

In California there is a proposal to allow bars to keep serving until four o’clock in the morning. Other states have similarly late (or early, depending on how you look at the clock) last call times. Alaska has last call at five in the morning, for example. Most cities in Florida close at 3AM — it's up to the communities to decide. In Louisiana, bars can technically serve 24 hours a day if there's no local law stating that they can't. In New York City closing time is four in the morning, but most municipalities throughout the state close at two. Jim and Doug discuss how much trouble tends to happen at closing time — disputes, altercations, DUI arrests — and why four o’clock last call is not a good idea.

Try to think if you’ve heard this one before: A man uses a vehicle as a weapon in a terrorist attack. That sounds familiar because this method of has become commonplace ever since ISIS and Al Qaeda began promoting it in their online instructional magazines. It recently happened in Stockholm, Sweden — an attack that left four people dead. In December 2016, a truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and wounding nearly 50 others. A Somali-born student at Ohio State University crashed his car into a crowd of pedestrians in November before getting out and stabbing several of them with a butcher knife.

Meanwhile, agencies across America are instituting policies that all but prohibit shooting at violent subjects in vehicles. Jim and Doug discuss why they feel “no shooting at vehicles, ever” policies don’t make sense.

Police Week, the annual event that honors all of the fallen officers throughout American history, is arguably the most powerful event LEOs can attend. Doug and Jim discuss the importance of the gathering, and why all police officers across the country should go at least once.

In April 2017, a man named Steve Stevens murdered an elderly man out for a walk. Stevens then posted a video of his crime on Facebook, where the footage remained visible for hours. This is not the first time that a criminal has posted pictures or video of their criminal acts on social media. Jim and Doug discuss the prevalence of these types of incidents, as well as some ideas about how to deal with them from a criminal prosecution perspective.

Individuals and groups who staunchly support the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms it affords have in recent years taken to carrying their firearms openly in public. They do this in order to visibly call attention to rights that they believe are in jeopardy of being taken from them by politicians who race to the television cameras every time a high-profile shooting happens. The trouble is, many Americans have never even held a gun, much less shot one. And people tend to fear what they don’t understand. So when six “guys with guns” show up at the coffee shop, police are usually called. In this podcast episode, Jim and Doug discuss the issues in play when police respond to calls involving open-carry advocates.