by Jayson Hawkins
The first state in the nation to institute a police bill of rights now also holds the distinction of being the first to repeal it. Passed into law in 1974, the legislation afforded Maryland cops the right to appeal disciplinary measures to a local board despite a ...
by Jayson Hawkins
More people are becoming aware that personal data is the currency of the Information Age in which we are living. Many have grown accustomed to taking steps to protect privacy on their phones and other digital devices, yet few may know about emerging technologies that allow law ...
by Jayson Hawkins
As the calls for greater police accountability have grown louder across the country, one of the most consistent and effective barriers to change is the power of police unions. The power of these unions is usually linked to their potential to sway the local elections that typically ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Recent media coverage of police brutality and other flagrant violations of civilians’ rights has offered numerous candidates for the dubious distinction of worst law enforcement agency in the U.S. The competition is stiff, but an investigation by CBS2 in Chicago suggests their police department should be a ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Daunte Wright. Philando Castile. Walter Scott. Sam DuBose. All too often another name is added to the list of Black men killed by cops at traffic stops. While police training continues to push the narrative that it is law enforcement officers who face extreme danger during these ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Video footage from security cameras is common fare in a variety of modern movies and television shows, but depictions in popular culture rarely offer an accurate portrayal of the state of surveillance technology or the way police or other security personnel utilize it. Gone are the days ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Police shootings across the country in recent years have raised questions about how cops are trained and their attitudes toward the local communities they are supposed to protect and serve. Under what circumstances are uses of force deemed excessive?
According to an independent report of an incident ...
by Jayson Hawkins
When George Orwell imagined the dystopian society of 1984, humanity simply did not possess the technology to bring his vision of the omnipresent surveillance state to life, even if there was no shortage of governments that wanted to do just that. The simple fact is that collecting, ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Proposed legislation coming in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot would add “domestic terrorism” to the long list of federal crimes. Amid the unsettled atmosphere in Washington, D.C., the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021 sounds, on its face, more like a common-sense measure ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Law enforcement agencies, like all bureaucratic institutions, generate extraordinary numbers of documents, records, and data. As calls for greater police accountability have grown across the country, one of the primary obstacles to building consensus about the problems in policing or any possible solutions has been an inability ...
