General news

A police oversight committee in Dallas is investigating four police officers after video shows them laughing at a disabled veteran that urinated on himself. The committee watched police body cam footage on August 8 that took place after two off-duty police officers at a Dallas restaurant denied him use of the bathrooms.

Too many Americans today live in fear that they may suffer abuse or excessive force at the hands of police officers who are sworn to protect them. To keep Americans safer, the federal government and state and local governments need to match continued investments in policing with reforms that make law enforcement agencies as a…

Despite being stopped and searched far more often than white people, Black people were less likely to be found carrying contraband, the data shows. They were, however, more likely to have force used against them.

“While boards of supervisors have a general responsibility to supervise sheriffs, their ability to do so is limited and they lack subpoena power over the office of sheriff,” reads the jury’s report. “The office of sheriff thus combines enormous power with little accountability.”

President Biden is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday aimed at bolstering police accountability… Biden will call for the creation of national standards for the accreditation of police departments and a national database of officers with substantiated complaints and disciplinary records, including those fired for misconduct.

The Sheriff’s Office still provides police services to the town. Sheriff David Livingston still investigates his own agency’s use-of-force incidents. The sheriff continues to defend Hall even after a jury found him guilty of assault in the 2018 shooting death of Laudemer Arboleda.

More than $1.5 billion has been spent to settle claims of police misconduct involving thousands of officers repeatedly accused of wrongdoing. 

Thousands of pages of testimony portray Laurie Smith as willing to bend and defy laws to defend her agency and practices.

[T]his week’s revelation that the San Francisco police crime lab used a sexual assault victim’s DNA against her in an unrelated property crime case — and the allegation that it may be a common practice in California — has prompted a national outcry among law enforcement, legal experts, lawmakers and advocates.

The group would have consisted of 15 to 20 residents who would meet regularly with the sheriff’s office to provide feedback on issues of community importance. Yet it would have lacked the transparency requirements and subpoena power afforded to independent oversight committees under Assembly Bill 1185.