The Marshall Project’s Post

"Last year’s drop was not unique to the Bay Area. An examination of a group of 32 cities of varying sizes across the country found a 10% overall decrease in homicides last year compared with 2022, according to the Council on Criminal Justice." https://lnkd.in/gNhGVYYD CCJ’s 2023 Year-End Crime Trends Report found that across 32 study cities, the homicide rate was 18% higher in 2023 than in 2019, but fell by 10% from 2022 to 2023 as cited by David Hernandez and Susie Neilson in The San Francisco Chronicle. Learn more at: https://lnkd.in/geAG_U_V

This article by Richard Rosenfeld helpfully walks out the ups and downs of recent homicide trends. I think it inspires a conversation many communities are having now or should have as everyone doubles down efforts to build or rebuild trust with police. It’s not enough to say that hot spots policing works or to imply that trust building is ubiquitous across all communities. We need to continue to interrogate whether hot spots policing (in its many and varied forms) has collateral consequences for building trust with BIPOC community members as decreasing violent crime and increasing trust are dual priorities. Care must be taken to infuse operations and tactical discussions with efforts to increase and rebuild trust.

This morning, the Council on Criminal Justice released our 2023 mid-year crime trends report. Examining crime data across 37 U.S. cities, our report found that homicide and other violent crimes are falling but remain higher than levels recorded prior to the pandemic and the social upheaval following the police murder of George Floyd. In contrast, motor vehicle thefts continue to spike, with some cities seeing double-digit increases compared to the first half of 2022. Highlights from the report can be found in our press release: https://lnkd.in/eJazgy4U More details, including recommendations from the authors, can be found in our full report: https://lnkd.in/eGXhD4Fg #crime #crimenews #criminaljustice

Domestic and family violence-related homicides have increased 50%, according to Queensland police data. We are currently undertaking a review of criminal defences, which is considering the application of defences that may arise from DFV homicides - as well as other more general contexts. Next month we are launching this review at an expert panel discussion on 15 February. For more information on our review and the event, go to the Criminal defences review page at: https://lnkd.in/gKqZA3Y2 #criminaldefences #DFV #domesticviolence #genderedviolence

Violent Crime and Homicide Falling Across US Major Cities, with Detroit on Track for a 60-Year Low: After a special task force was created to address a criminal case backlog in Detroit, the city is on pace for the lowest homicide rate in 60 years, with violent crime in general falling at combined rates of 56%. By the end of the government-enforced lockdowns of the criminal justice system in Wayne County which […] The post Violent Crime and Homicide Falling Across US Major Cities, with Detroit on Track for a 60-Year Low appeared first on Good News Network. https://lnkd.in/gR7QYpb6

Seattle has more homicides than new police hires in 2023: https://lnkd.in/d6jHiteY There is an obvious reason for this grim statistic. A study from Harvard economist Roland Fryer found that pattern or practice investigations conducted by the Civil Rights Division at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) sometimes resulted in hundreds of deaths. See: "Policing the Police: The Impact of "Pattern-or-Practice" Investigations on Crime" https://lnkd.in/gYbTB-jW We now have evidence from Seattle that DOJ consent decrees may also lead to more deaths. Seattle has been under a consent decree for 12 years and the City has been forced to spend more than $200 million to implement the DOJ mandated reforms. In 2022 and 2023 homicides in Seattle reached record levels while Seattle PD has been losing officers at a record rate and has been unable to replace them. At the same time DOJ is claiming that their consent decree has achieved amazing results in Seattle: https://lnkd.in/dhZ-WfDp Last week the federal judge partially lifted the consent decree despite the fact that the City of Seattle and its residents are much worse off today than they were before the consent decree began: https://lnkd.in/dVKGYBZz This madness will only end when a mayor or city council is willing to stand up to the DOJ and refuse to sign a consent decree. I'm looking at you Louisville, Minneapolis and Phoenix. These settlement agreements are voluntary, and DOJ does not have the authority to force any city to submit to federal oversight. If a city refuses to agree to a consent decree, then DOJ would have to file a civil lawsuit in federal court and prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the city had a "pattern or practice" of unconstitutional policing. Only one elected official has ever stood up to the DOJ and that was the Alamance County Sheriff in North Carolina. DOJ sued the Sheriff's Office and DOJ failed to prove their case in court: https://lnkd.in/gcHvau93 DOJ lost because their pattern or practice findings are fabricated. These findings letters are based on the opinions of civil rights attorneys rather than facts or evidence. Even if a City were to lose in federal court, the worst sanction that could be imposed would be a consent decree. "Just Say No" to DOJ consent decrees. #police #lawenforcement #policing #policereform #doj #attorneygeneral #seattle #seattlewa #seattlewashington #washington #washingtonstate #policedepartment #policeaccountability #policemisconduct #policechief #policeofficer #departmentofjustice #publicsafety #crimeprevention #racialjustice #racialbias  #civilrights #constitutional #policetraining #lawenforcementtraining #lawenforcementofficer #criminaljustice #criminaljusticereform #louisville #louisvilleky #louisvillekentucky #kentucky #minneapolis #minneapolismn #minnesota https://lnkd.in/dM6iG3CA

The discussion on police staffing and juvenile crime in Baltimore underscores the need for comprehensive community engagement. How can Beacon Staffing Alternatives and other local businesses collaborate with the police department and social services to enhance recruitment and develop effective crime prevention strategies? #CollaborativeAction #PublicSafety

Violent Crime and Homicide Falling Across US Major Cities, with Detroit on Track for a 60-Year Low: After a special task force was created to address a criminal case backlog in Detroit, the city is on pace for the lowest homicide rate in 60 years, with violent crime in general falling at combined rates of 56%. By the end of the government-enforced lockdowns of the criminal justice system in Wayne County which […] The post Violent Crime and Homicide Falling Across US Major Cities, with Detroit on Track for a 60-Year Low appeared first on Good News Network. https://lnkd.in/gEiyQU4J

The Council on Criminal Justice’s mid-year crime trends report found that murders in 30 large American cities declined by 9.4% in the first half of 2023 compared to the first half of 2022. If this trend continues through the end of 2023, the nation will have experienced one of the largest single-year homicide reductions in the era of modern record keeping. CCJ’s full report on trends in homicide and other crimes will be released in January. https://lnkd.in/gkmkr-3j #crime #homicides