Criminal Justice Technology in the News

Law Enforcement News

WSU Spokane Researcher Lois James' Study of Police Bias Helps Earn Her YWCA Recognition as a Woman of Achievement
The Spokesman-Review, (09/25/2018), Bill Campbell
This article looks at research performed by Lois James of Washington State University-Spokane, which includes developing a simulator that law enforcement agencies in Washington and Oregon are using to train their officers about implicit bias and how to deal with it. The scenarios used in the simulator provide a different twist than those used in other shoot/don't shoot simulators, and James hopes to spread its use to agencies in other areas of the country.
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Police Sketches Persist in the Age of Technology
WHNT 19, (09/27/2018), Kelly Vaughen
Special Agent Senior Craig Shook, the only state-certified sketch artist employed by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, says although many police departments have turned to computer programs to generate sketches of suspects, they lack the individual touch that a human-drawn sketch can bring to solving a crime. Shook was a double art major in college before putting his talents to use in the law enforcement arena.
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Huntington Beach District Works to Boost School Safety Through New Federal Security Assessment
Los Angeles Times, (09/27/2018), Charity Lindsey
Ethel Dwyer Middle School in California's Huntington Beach City School District recently became the first school in the country to use a school safety assessment tool released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in July. The assessment helps a school analyze safety shortcomings and develop possible solutions.
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Opioid Hot Spot: Police Fight Drug Abuse In Farmingdale
Farmingdale Observer, (09/28/2018), Frank Rizzo
The Nassau County (N.Y.) Police Department is using real-time mapping technology called the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP) to target areas with a heavy concentration of drug overdoses and narcotics arrests. First responders and law enforcement officers use their mobile devices to input locations, and the county then targets additional resources in areas of high prevalence. The effort is named “Operation Natalie,” in memory of Natalie Ciappa, a Massapequa teen who died of a heroin overdose in June 2008.
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Students on the Case
Slate, (09/28/2018), Josephine Wolff
Every summer, six undergraduate student interns from the University of Notre Dame are sworn in as officers of the St. Joseph County Cyber Crimes Unit. The interns only carry badges when in the company of experienced sworn officers, and assist in gathering forensic evidence at crime scenes. Although other universities have similar internship programs, very few, if any, others swear them in as officers.
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Hiring Female Police Officers Helps Women Report Violence, Sexual Assault, Study Finds
Phys.Org, (09/28/2018), Carolyn Newman
A study conducted by a University of Virginia economics professor and a researcher from the University of Zurich has found that even a slight increase in the number of female officers in a given police department leads to an improvement in the reporting of crimes against women. The study found no corresponding increase in reporting of crimes against men. The effect was particularly pronounced in the reporting of domestic violence crimes.
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State Police Announce Program to Fight Opioid Epidemic
Providence Journal, (10/01/2018), Derek Gomes
Eighty officers from the Rhode Island State Police and municipal departments recently participated in a daylong training program for the Heroin-Opioid Prevention Effort (HOPE) Initiative. Under the initiative, believed to be the first of its kind in the United States, law enforcement officers will work with clinicians and recovery coaches to guide individuals at risk of overdosing toward treatment and recovery. The program focuses on patients being discharged from the hospital after suffering from an overdose, recently released individuals who received substance-abuse treatment in prison and people who miss court dates for drug charges.
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Baltimore Police Release Body Camera Footage of Shootout
Officer.com, (10/02/2018), Jessica Anderson and Sarah Meehan for the Baltimore Sun
At a recent press conference, the Baltimore Police Department released body camera footage and additional details about a September 23 gun battle where the suspect was killed and an officer saved by his ballistic-resistant vest. At the press event, interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle and police spokesman T.J. Smith showed body-camera footage from a second officer's camera and discussed the incident. The injured officer's body camera was destroyed by a bullet.
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Corrections News

Mississippi Starts Stress-Reduction Rooms for Prison Workers
Ledger-Inquirer, (09/27/2018), Emily Wagster Pettus for the Associated Press
The Mississippi Department of Corrections has begun creating stress-reduction rooms for employees in response to complaints that staff feel overworked and underpaid. In an email, the Mississippi DOC described the quiet rooms as including such amenities as a massage chair, nature sounds and wellness reading materials. Some feel that the money would have been better spent on salary increases, however.
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California to Offer Vegan Meal Option in Prisons
KPIX5, (09/28/2018), Susie Steimle
California has become the first state in the nation to require all state residential facilities, including prisons, to offer vegan meal options. The bill's sponsor, Democrat Nancy Skinner, said inmates wrote to her office saying vegans were subsisting on a scraps-only diet of items like plain bread and rice.
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Crime and Nourishment – The Link Between Food and Offending Behaviour
Medical Express, (09/28/2018), Hazel Flight, John Marsden and Sean Creaney for The Conversation
In this article, researchers present their findings about the poor nutritional quality of food served in correctional facilities in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the possible links between poor nutrition, and aggressive and impulsive behavior.
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Drug Treatment Programs and Jails Work Together to Help Inmates
MPR News, (09/25/2018), Jon Collins
This article looks at how jails and treatment programs in Minnesota are cooperating to get recently released inmates into treatment programs. The goal is to keep inmates from relapsing, succumbing to overdoses and/or committing offenses that would return them to the corrections system.
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$18M Worth of Cocaine Found in Bananas Given to Texas Prison
680 News, (09/28/2018), Associated Press
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says that 540 packages of cocaine were found hidden in 45 boxes of donated bananas. The bananas were donated to the prison system because they were already ripe.
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Probation and Parole Systems Marked by High Stakes, Missed Opportunities
Pew, (09/25/2018)
Approximately 4.5 million people in the United States - twice as many as are incarcerated – are on probation or parole. Research has identified effective supervision and treatment strategies, but an overloaded system tends to return individuals to prison for new incidents or failure to follow the rules. This article presents analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation that has identified problems within the system and potential solutions.
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