Tag: police

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Investing in Summer Youth Employment Programs Creates Stronger, Safer Communities 

To reduce crime, enhance public safety, and improve outcomes for people involved with the criminal justice system, we need to follow the evidence. Across the country, we have seen how proactive strategies like summer youth employment programs (SYEPs) have been proven to counter this seasonal crime spike, offer at-risk youth a more constructive path forward, and reduce violence. Moreover, these programs have a lasting effect, helping to bring down crime and violence throughout the year.

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My chat with NPR: “Six Republican governors sending National Guard troops to D.C.”

Recently, I spoke with National Public Radio's (NPR) Meg Anderson about President Trump's and various state governors' move to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C. Our conversation was long and her segment featured a brief comment about how we may see crime decrease in the short-term but likely not over the long-term. How to best address violent crime is a serious issue that needs serious interventions backed by rigorous evidence. There are already several that we know work.

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“Safer States: Shoring Up the Public Safety Workforce”

Thankful to have had the chance to present and moderate a panel at the 2025 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Summit on “Safer States: Shoring Up the Public Safety Workforce." Adequately, staffing public safety roles — especially in law enforcement, corrections, and public defense — has become an increasingly urgent challenge across the country. These are some of the most critical, high-stakes, and high-stress jobs in government, and the people who fill them shape the daily experience of safety in our communities. Agencies across the country are facing historic workforce shortages. The challenge isn’t just keeping people on the job — it’s finding and hiring enough qualified candidates in the first place.

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States and ​“Familiar Faces” in the Justice System

Most jurisdictions are home to a small population of people who cycle through the criminal justice and behavioral health systems. With help from the Council of State Governments Justice Center, Georgia and New Mexico set out to address the problem. Happy to talk with Michael Friedrich about the importance of the "Familiar Faces" initiative led by …

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As Foundation for ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis Cracks, Fallout Spreads

I was happy to talk with KFF Health News on the important new developments debunking the faulty science of the "excited delirium" diagnosis. This diagnosis, which is not based in objective, credible science has been used as a finding for cause of death in numerous police killings of civilians, especially Black men. It had been …

Continue reading "As Foundation for ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis Cracks, Fallout Spreads"

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Police accountability is a bipartisan issue. Don’t let it become a prop in our political theater 

In May, I co-authored a piece for The Hill with my friend, Jillian Snider - the policy director of R Street's Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties team and a retired NYPD officer. Our piece was in response the political theater underway in Congress to usurp Washington D.C.'s locally-driven police reform bill. Fortunately, while the resolution passed, President Biden vetoed it - upholding D.C. residents ability to seek the type of policing they want - which, as we discuss in this piece included a number of commonsense police reform measures that have been passed in a number of states, including so-called purple and red states.

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Special Issue Guest Editor: Envisaging the future of policing and public health

I had the great opportunity to partner with Dr. Nick Crofts of the Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health (Australia) to serve as the Guest Editor for a special issue of the Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being. The special issue, Envisaging Healthy and Safe Communities, shares lessons from a project we led that sought to document and highlight initiatives across the globe that are taking alternative approaches to promote health and safety.

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Biden can change federal policing practices and set the floor for policies nationwide

Recently, I published a commentary in the San Antonio Express-News detailing the ways in which the Biden administration can and should utilize its executive authority to enact reforms across the dozens of federal agencies employing over 130,000 federal law enforcement officers. Such an effort would both meet needed reforms in these agencies and set a path for local and state law enforcement.