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Articles by Jayson Hawkins

Social Media Surveillance

by Jayson Hawkins

Big Brother is still watching. Amid a growing chorus of troubling reports about the extraordinarily effective efforts of the police state in China to spy on its citizens’ online activity, evidence continues to accumulate showing that police excel at snooping around social media in America, too. In ...

Institutional Resistance to Police Reform Continues

by Jayson Hawkins

Public scrutiny of police behavior in recent years has mostly failed to bring about substantive change in the way police operate in America. Many causes have been put forward to explain the institutional resistance to change, from racism to police intransigence. A recent paper by Max M. ...

Illinois Law Protects Personal Data

by Jayson Hawkins

A new Illinois statute is the first in the nation to require police to have a search warrant or the owner’s permission before accessing their data on a personal device. The Protecting Household Privacy Act, which went into effect on January 1, 2022, is intended to establish ...

Study Examines Link Between Fines and Crime

by Jayson Hawkins

A new study published in the American Sociological Review (“ASR”) challenges the efficacy and rationale of the growing body of fees and fines being imposed for minor offenses in courts across the U.S. The study asserts that these fines have no deterrent value and simply punish, or ...

Michigan Makes Civil Forfeiture Easier at Airports

by Jayson Hawkins

Civil forfeiture, the government confiscation of cash or assets believed to be related to criminal activity, has been a favorite tool of police since the early days of the war on drugs. The process requires a low burden of proof, the money goes directly to police budgets, ...

Studies Place ‘Rationality’ of Residential Restrictions in Doubt

by Jayson Hawkins

Few terms conjure a more apprehensive reaction than “sex offender.” Yet, like those convicted of any other crimes, the vast majority of sex offenders eventually serve their sentences and return to society. Various localities have adopted policies limiting where such individuals may live, usually by barring them ...

Forensic Psychiatrist Questions the Value of Memory

by Jayson Hawkins

Eyewitness testimony is often central to criminal trials, and even though the quality of that testimony has repeatedly come under fire in the age of DNA-based exonerations, the value of eyewitness accounts has not diminished. This value stems from the high level of confidence that people — ...

FBI Phone Hack May Have Monitored Americans in Operation Trojan Shield

by Jayson Hawkins

The tale reads like a Hollywood version of undercover police work, but Operation Trojan Shield really happened. The FBI was monitoring encrypted traffic on the “black devices” favored by criminals as soon as they came out of the box. Now, new questions are being asked about the ...

Speed Trap Gold Mine

by Jayson Hawkins

All the attention garnered by cops murdering unarmed Black men in America in recent years has led to widespread calls for “police reform,” a rather ambiguous term advocating changes in how police interact with communities of color and new policies to counteract decades of mass incarceration. Lost ...

Manhattan DA Launches Conviction Review Unit

by Jayson Hawkins

On April 20, 2022, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the formation of a Post-Conviction Justice Unit (“PCJU”) to review questionable convictions in Manhattan. The announcement included not only the parameters for filing a petition for review but also a clear statement of intention by the Manhattan ...

 

 

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