Around the world, police departments, policy makers, and communities have struggled to develop best practices that ensure the delivery of both fair and effective policing. Recently, five police departments in Spain undertook an ambitious reform program intended to reduce ethnic profiling and increase the effectiveness and fairness of police stops and searches. Their collective experience shows that change is possible—while also illustrating the challenges and resources required to make change sustainable. Through a series of steps outlined in this report, police agencies reduced the ethnic disproportionality of their stops, increased the effectiveness of stops, while reducing the total number of people stopped, and improved relations with ethnic minority communities.
How the Police Should Use Stop-and-Search Data
Letter to editor originally published in "The New York Times" on December 1, 2014, regarding use of police stop-and-search data to promote fair and effective policing.
Ferguson, Missouri: Not Just an American Tragedy
The shooting death of Mike Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer and the subsequent stand-offs between protestors and heavily armed law enforcement units might seem like a quintessentially all-American tragedy. But it’s not. Consider the violent rioting that erupted across England in 2011, after police in London shot dead Mark Duggan, a black British …
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Equality Betrayed: Speaking Out Against Ethnic Profiling by French Police
Adji Ahoudian is a French citizen, and an elected member in the office of the mayor of the 19th arrondissement in Paris. He proudly remembers the day he received his new official I.D., with the Republican motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”. But then, after attending a council meeting one day, he was stopped by the police …
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Police Profiling: A Global Problem
The Open Society Foundations support efforts to document and remedy profiling by law enforcement in the United States and Europe. Strategic litigation is a key tool, and a new wave of cases is challenging profiling in New York, the UK, Australia, and France. Here, Marc Krupanski of the Open Society Justice Initiative and Terrance Pitts …
Immigration Crackdown in Stockholm Provokes Pushback
The messages keep coming in to the Facebook and Twitter accounts of a social network called REVA Spotter: 10.37am: uniformed police at Fridhemsplan station, on their way to the platform. 11.04am: uniformed cops at Central station, Sergels Square exit. Seem to be checking ID. 11.30am: police checks at Maltesholmsvägen and Hasselby Square. The updates provide …
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Policing the Police: Civilian Video Monitoring of Police Activity
Police misconduct and violence continues throughout the world, often without any oversight, accountability or justice for the victims. Recent deaths of civilians by police officers in New York, violent repression of “Occupy” protestors, and rampant police violence in response to the “Arab Spring” have brought renewed attention to the persistent issue of police violence. A …
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Statement presented to the Public Safety Committee of the New York City Council on NYPD Stop-and-Frisk and Oversight
*NOTE: This statement was presented to the New York City Council's Public Safety Committee regarding internal oversight and accountability mechanisms within the NYPD. The statement detailed continued racial profiling and unconstitutional stop-and-frisks by the NYPD, failure to implement discipline for substantiated cases of misconduct, and recommendation to appoint a special prosecutor and independent police auditor. …
Racial Disparities in NYPD Stops-and-Frisks: Preliminary Report on UF-250 data from 2005 – June 2008
*NOTE: The full report, available here, was published by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on January 15, 2009. I conducted this analysis and drafted the report while on staff of CCR (from 2004-2009). This analysis was submitted to the New York City Council in testimony, and conducted as part of Floyd et al v City of New York …
