Police

Murdered in the Park

Just last month, I swear I told my class, “People won’t talk about crime until a cute white girl gets murdered.” Tessa Majors, unfortunately, is that woman. Would her murder be getting as much press if she had been black? I doubt it. But who knows? Turns out not a lot college students of any race get robbed and killed.…

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Police

Murder down for whites but not blacks

The 2018 murder rate is down from the previous two years, but higher than we’ve seen in 6 of the past 10 years. Last year’s murder rate is the same as 2015. And 2009! And yet I keep hearing every year that violence is down. So what’s this trend? And sort of related, why do some people insist on the…

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Police

Rest in Peace, NYPD Detective Brian Mulkeen

Brian Mulkeen was a Fordham grad and worked at Merrill Lynch till he quit his job and joined the NYPD. Apparently Mulkeen was killed by “friendly fire” while wrestling with an armed suspect. There’s a nice 1 minute video on twitter. I was mostly just sad and dry eyed till “Country Roads” kicked in. Because he’s not just a cop;…

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Police

“Stop the car or I’ll step in front of it”

This was not a good shooting. And cringe-worthy from an officer’s perspective. From the suspect’s perspective, well, he’s dead. I’m quoted in this article. The background is the car popped up on a stolen car list (I think from an automated license plate reader). The officer is told to investigate. The car is in a parking lot. There is no…

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Police

Quality Policing Episode 25

There’s a new episode of quality policing. And with a new cohost. Click through and listen here. https://qualitypolicing.com/episode-25-peter-moskos-and-introducing-leon-taylor/ Download the mp3 file here: https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/17113983/download.mp3

Police

To call 911 or not to call 911?

May 17 of last year the NYPD issued an obscure order concerning “aided reports” — that’s when a cop responds to a 911 call for a sick person waiting for an ambulance (a “bus,” as they say here) — requiring the officer to enter the person’s information into their phone. This looks all technical and boring. When you put the…

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Police

What’s Up With Crime Being Down in Camden?

Let me start by saying I don’t know much about Camden, New Jersey. So if you know more, help me figure things out. The city of Camden is just across the river from Philadelphia. It’s part of Camden County. The city has a declining population of about 75,000. Camden is about half black and half hispanic. It is, by any…

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Police

More on state differences in cops shooting people

Inspired by some twitter threads — mostly this onewith Gary Cordner and this onewith Andrew Wheeler — I thought I’d look more at the cops getting killed as a factor in cops killing people. I like presenting this stage of research. In part because coming up with ideas and hypotheses and basic number crunching is what I like doing most.…

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