Media Clips

Philadelphia’s Citizens Police Oversight Commission reviewed body-worn camera footage from the Philadelphia Police Department (PDP) and found that, in some instances, officers ignored police department policies and procedures, according to Kensington Voice. The audit from the commission, which was created in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, found that only 54% of the 119 recordings analyzed met all department criteria (full incident captured, activation from standby, no prohibited content), and only 6% complied with PPD’s requirement that it be stated why a camera was turned off. Hans Menos, Vice President of Public Safety Innovations at CPE, says why it is important that police body-worn cameras be turned on for an entire encounter: In order to create the kind of transparency that prevents use-of-force incidents and increases public trust, officers need to keep their cameras on the whole time, said Hans Menos, vice president of public safety innovations at the […]

Despite the Jersey City Police Department (JCPD) joining the state’s mental health response program, ARRIVE Together, “which pairs officers with mental health professionals to respond to mental health-related calls,” the Jersey City Times reports that JCPD officers are still using force when responding to these incidents. While the average number of mental health-related use-of-force incidents have decreased per quarter, there were still 50 incidents in 2025 alone. Alternative responder approaches may be more effective than more officer training. Charlotte Resing, CPE’s Government Affairs Manager, explains why: But two other experts in policing said while training can help officers navigate situations involving mental health, it may not be enough. Charlotte Resing, government affairs manager at the Center for Policing Equity, said alternative responders — people coming to the scene without a gun and not in uniform — tend to be most effective in de-escalating mental health crises. “Having training to know

In Jackson, Miss., predominantly White GOP lawmakers are diverting funding away from the Black, majority-Democratic city’s local agencies to fund a new spacious courthouse and increase staffing for the Jackson Capitol Police. The move has been criticized, especially in light of the Trump administration’s mobilization of National Guard troops to majority Democratic cities across the country. Rather than support existing courts and police departments, these funding and staffing changes, enacted under the guise of “ensuring law and order,” erode trust between police and the communities they serve. Of these decisions, CPE’s CEO and cofounder, Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, said: The risk of such moves, say national policing experts, is that resources are diverted from the local agencies that are most accountable to communities. The result is separate but unequal systems, according to Phillip Atiba Solomon of the Center for Policing Equity, a group that studies the effects of policing and

The Oaklandside, an independent nonprofit newsroom serving Oakland, California, reports that the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) has released a new report stating violent crime has “dropped by 36% in the first seven months of the year compared to the same period last year,” and points to the installation of new, hardened gates as strong deterrents against fare evasion and crime. However, several crime categories, such as aggravated assaults and simple assaults, have “remained stable or increased,” and riders have seen people bypassing the new gates. The article cites CPE’s report from May that found fare enforcement was not making people feel safer: This past May, a report from the Center for Policing Equity, a Yale nonprofit research center, based on 14 focus groups, found that nearly a third of participants were afraid of being subjected to violence inside BART. The researchers also found that fare enforcement was not

Axios Philadelphia reports on the city’s new two-year police contract that includes raises and bonuses for police officers but zero funding for the Citizens Police Oversight Commission (CPOC). While the new contract does not restrict or eliminate CPOC, it “neuters” CPOC and its ability to conduct independent investigations into police officers. CPE’s Hans Menos, VP of Public Safety Innovations, tells Axios: After many cities enacted police reforms following George Floyd’s murder, they’re again facing “headwinds … the status quo or worse.” It’s the same predicament Menos faced when he was head of the city’s Police Advisory Commission (PAC), CPOC’s predecessor. PAC didn’t have CPOC’s legislative mandate or subpoena power – and now the police watchdog is basically back in the same situation.  “We have a short memory when it comes to crises,” Menos says. Read more on Axios Philadelphia’s website.

For years, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has seen the number of Black recruits, and in particular women, drop. Now, according to reports from the LA Times, the pool of candidates has all but run dry. This recruiting challenge isn’t exclusive to the LAPD. Law enforcement agencies across the country are experiencing challenges in recruitment despite generous pay and pension options, and the Trump administration’s efforts to get rid of DEI policies nationwide have exacerbated these challenges. Ivonne Roman, Senior Implementation Strategist at CPE, discusses how the Trump administration’s actions will further undermine recruiting for police departments: Even though most local police departments aren’t as dependent on federal funding as, say, public universities, police executives may feel less pressure to diversify their agencies in the current social climate, she said. Steps such as the dismissal of Biden-era civil rights lawsuits that accused police departments of hiring disparities could embolden

In an essay for TIME, “Building a Moonshot for Racial Justice,” Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, CPE Co-Founder and CEO, reflects on the progress made to eradicate racism in the United States in the five years since George Floyd’s death. While the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death saw a surge in local initiatives and some federal policy reform to make policing less racist and hold police more accountable, that momentum has since waned. Under the second Trump administration, the progress toward equality and justice has become much more challenging. A sustained effort that celebrates the smallest of victories is needed to create lasting systemic change: The third step is abandoning the idea that justice is a single achievement—a moon landing, one legislative win, one landmark court ruling, one budget reallocation that will fix everything. Justice is not a single scheme. It is not a destination. It is a sustained effort, something

The Daily Californian published an article on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s recent installation of new Next Gen Fare Gates to crack down on “free-riders.” This $90 million effort to quell the practice of fare evasion was promoted as a way to not only reduce crime, but improve feelings of safety among riders. Unfortunately, these claims don’t hold up. According to the article, studies fail to find consistent correlation between increased fare inspection and decreased fare evasion. Meanwhile, CPE, again in their 2025 report, “did not find evidence” of fare evaders “creating a lot of crime”, the words of CPE vice president Hans Menos, though BART attributes a 17% drop in crime last year to fare evasion measures, nor did the report conclude these measures were “effective at curbing incidents that make riders feel uneasy.” It’s no secret that BART is facing a $350 million structural deficit, one that

In 2018, several high-profile reports of Black men being killed by police in Missouri and New York eventually prompted the Berkeley Police Department to contact the Center for Policing Equity. The nonprofit, which conducts analyses on stop data, uncovered major racial disparities in traffic stops, searches, and uses of force.  An article by Berkleyside reports that the department has declared victory after completing an 11-year initiative to address issues of racial profiling, and racial disparities in its enforcement policies and practices.  However, data show Black people remain the most frequent targets when police use force, from more than 40% in 2021 to more than half in 2023, although that is linked to another disparity: BPD arrests Black people far more frequently.  Crash demographics are a common benchmark, but “all benchmarks have limitations,” said Matt Graham, a senior analyst at the Center for Policing Equity, which delivered the 2018 report. BPD’s

Federal Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents have been the center of controversy as news outlets report officers carrying out raids in public spaces, often in plain clothes and with covered faces. More frequently, interactions between ICE and local communities are met with escalating hostility and violence. Community members report that ICE agents routinely carry out arrests without identifying themselves, which some say  poses significant public safety risks.  Hans Menos, a vice president at the Center for Policing Equity stated “Let’s think about an area like Philadelphia or Texas, where the average gun ownership rate is maybe higher than the rest of the country, and the unidentifiable masked man wants to snatch somebody off the street, and someone wants to intervene because they think it’s an illegal act happening.”  Menos went on to say, “Pretending that can’t happen is really naive.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration claims that by hiding immigration