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 NEWS

The Police Foundation has launched a national effort to bring together law enforcement leaders, public officials, scholars, and community stakeholders to collaboratively examine the implications of local law enforcement of immigration laws. The goals of the project are to review practices, constitutional issues, and economic factors; to provide state and local agencies with data and recommendations to inform policy; and to facilitate dialogue between immigrant communities and law enforcement in order to reduce fear and mistrust and enhance cooperation and improve public safety. The project’s culmination will include a national conference in Washington, D.C., on August 21-22, 2008, an invitation-only event at which 200 law enforcement leaders, policy makers, scholars, and community leaders will participate in facilitated discussions. Proceedings of the conference will be published and widely disseminated. For more information about the conference, click here.

The Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor is the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer. The medal is awarded by the President to public safety officers who have exhibited exceptional courage in protecting or saving human lives. Submit an online application at the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Web site.

NIJ Conference 2008, July 21-23, 2008. Info at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/events/nij_conference/welcome.htm

 PROJECTS

Eyewitness Identification Field Studies (EWID)

Mistaken eyewitness identification is the leading cause of wrongful conviction of innocent people in the United States.  Scientists have shown that there are system-based factors (i.e., factors within the control of the police) that empirically elevate the risk of identification error, and in response have proposed laboratory-tested procedures that can reduce drastically wrongful convictions based on erroneous or biased eyewitness identifications. These include double-blind administration, improved instructions, better lineup construction, and recording confidence statements from the eyewitnesses at the time of the identification.

The American Judicature Society and its Institute of Forensic Science and Public Policy have partnered with the Center for Modern Forensic Practice of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY), the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, the Innocence Project at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Yeshiva University), and the Police Foundation to implement an unprecedented and groundbreaking series of national eyewitness identification field studies. In addition to assisting with field studies, the Police Foundation is developing an outcomes assessment for the project. The project is funded by the JEHT Foundation.

PUBLICATIONS

Police Pursuits After Scott v Harris: Far from Ideal? (260 KB) by Geoffrey P. Alpert and William C. Smith
Ideas in American Policing, Number 10

Police pursuits remain one of the most dangerous activities in which the police participate. Every high-speed pursuit involves a serious threat to innocent bystanders, officers and suspects. For years, agencies as well as the courts have used the facts and holdings in Tennessee v Garner to determine when deadly force can be used in a pursuit. Since the Garner decision in 1985, it has been understood that the police may not use deadly force to seize a fleeing suspect unless the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious bodily harm to officers or others.  This paper looks at the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent analysis of Garner in the Scott v Harris decision and discusses the implications that analysis may have for policing in America. 

 

 



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