Civil Rights Movements & the Law

Earlier this year, the Justice Department announced it was opening similar investigation into police forces in Minneapolis, after the death of George Floyd, and in Louisville, Kentucky, after the death of Breonna Taylor.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department on Friday withdrew a policy put in place during former President Donald Trump’s administration that limited the tools…

The U.S. Justice Department, in the midst of investigating policing practices in three major cities, will toughen oversight of federal monitors who supervise implementation of police reforms mandated in civil consent decrees, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Monday.

Insurance companies have spent $17 million to defeat proposals to weaken or abolish the for-profit bail industry in the United States, a system that brings insurers $15 billion in business a year, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign contributions, company financial...

SEATTLE (AP) — Isaiah Obet was behaving erratically and in mental distress in 2017 when Auburn police officer Jeff Nelson ordered his police dog to attack and then shot Obet in the torso. Obet fell to the ground and Nelson fired again, fatally shooting Obet in the head.

Anyone can access portions of a web portal used by law enforcement to request customer data from Amazon, even though the portal is supposed to require a verified email address and password. Amazon’s law enforcement request portal allows police and federal agents to submit formal requests for customer data along with a legal order, like […]

Scholars who study policing explain what they have found that could help reduce police prejudice and violence.

Mayor London Breed said the funds would be reallocated over two years to address stark inequities in housing, education, health and economic opportunities faced by the city's Black community.

Tyre Nichols died after he was beaten by police at a traffic stop. Campaign Zero has previously revealed research-backed ways to curb such violence.

Police misconduct records are either secret or difficult to access in a majority of states - 35 of them plus Washington, D.

The city's leaders hope overhauling the department's training — and better responses to people in crisis — will reverse the trend.

From remote reference to technology access, libraries across the country are providing a range of services for people and families affected by incarceration.

On the latest episode of Intercepted, historian Simon Balto discussed his new book and the origins of Chicago police as a moralistic enforcement agency.

For the redrawing of voting maps, some states are making a little-known change to their census numbers that is expected to shift political power away from rural, predominantly white prison towns.

Lexipol LLC, a consulting firm that drafts policies for thousands of police departments, is behind an “aggressive” effort to stiffen police resistance to reform, say two University of California law professors.

The plaintiffs say cyanide gas executions are unconstitutional and bring back horrendous memories of the Holocaust.

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State and local policing budgets have kept a consistent share of public budgets by percentage, but the dollar amounts have grown since 1977.

Debtors’ prison might sound arcane. But this comic explains how it exists under a certain guise in America today.

Court records in an arson case show that Google gave away data on people who searched for a specific address.

At the request of the local prosecutor, a judge on Monday dismissed the charges and convictions against the Groveland Four: Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin.

The extrajudicial killings of black people must stop.

In June, Democrats passed a measure to limit qualified immunity, with support from moderates who’ve since spoken out against the “defund” message.

The long-term goal is fundamentally to reimagine how the state serves its citizens in the project of public safety.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington, D.C., government has struck a deal with the U.S. Marshals Service to improve the situation at the city's main jail after it came under criticism and the Justice Department announced that 400 federal prisoners would be transferred out because of substandard conditions.

A Sergeant of the Beverly Hills Police Department tries to avoid video posts by playing copyrighted music. Discover more about his move here.

The Intercept mapped climate risks for 6,500 detention facilities. In some already miserable places, the suffering is set to intensify.

The Intercept mapped climate crisis risks for over 6,500 detention facilities in the U.S.

Three people filed the lawsuit against the city on Tuesday.

The Chicago Police Department has taken steps to end the 15-year ordeal of a man who alleges he has been detained more than 60 times on the belief he was the man named in a southern Illinois arrest warrant, a lawyer for city said Monday.