Another racially charged incident involving police came to light recently when video was released of a 2015 arrest. Lawrence Crosby, a graduate student at Northwestern University and a black man, was tackled to the ground by multiple police officers after a 911 caller suggested he was trying to steal a car. Only thing is, it was Crosby’s car. Crosby is now suing the Evanston, Ill., Police Department. Read more here.

The details of the story are unambiguously disturbing. Last week, a white 18-year-old man from suburban Chicago was found walking in the cold, disoriented and bloodied. Four people, all black, had held him against his will for four hours, tied him up, and assaulted him while live streaming part of it on Facebook. Read more here.

A $950 million, eight-story state-of-the art police academy facility that looks like a college campus is the face of the dramatic “culture change” the New York Police Department (NYPD) hopes to introduce to a new generation of recruits. Read more here.

"Do you believe police are implicitly biased against black people?" When NBC newsman Lester Holt asked Hillary Clinton this question in the first presidential debate, it was a sure sign the science of implicit bias had jumped from the psychology journals into the public consciousness—and that racial bias in law enforcement has entered the national dialogue. Read more here.

When a Baltimore police shift commander created an arrest form for loitering on public housing, he didn’t even try to hide his racist expectations. In the template, there was no space to fill in gender or race. Instead, that information was automatically filled out: “black male.” Add more here. 

Close observers of local police data won't be surprised by the findings of the brief published last month by the Center for Policing Equity titled "The Science of Policing Equity: Measuring Fairness in the Austin Police Department."

Most of the findings already appeared in March's annual report published by the Office of the Police Monitor, and in OPM reports published in the few years before that. In sum, according to data provided by APD, officers in 2015 pulled over, searched the cars of, or arrested black drivers at a rate disproportionate to that race's demographical representation within the city. And in 2014, officers applied use of force (or its departmental classification, response to resistance) on black residents at a higher rate than they did other races. Read more here.

This special report from the Austin American-Statesman is worth a read for a glimpse into just how difficult it is for a police chief to change the culture of local law enforcement. On October 20, investigative reporter Tony Plohetski released audio of a private meeting that Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo held with police department commanders in August. The chief was miffed about two publicized instances of police violence. One involved police officer Bryan Richter, who was caught on film slamming Breaion King, a 26-year-old African-American teacher onto a parking-lot pavement after a traffic stop. The other involved officer Geoffrey Freeman, who shot and killed David Joseph, a 17-year-old African American. The teenager was not only unarmed, but was completely naked when Freeman shot him. Read more here.

LAYTON, UTAH — After watching the extended version of the dash camera video from Amanda Houghton’s July 25th arrest, former Salt Lake City Police Chris Burbank said the actions of the Layton Police officer were “over invasive” and the search was “unnecessary." Read more here.

Officers involved in at least two controversial fatal police shootings this month failed to activate their body-worn cameras, leaving critical gaps in evidence that threaten to undermine the primary purpose of the devices. Read more here.

In May 2015, only a week after I sat in my residence hall watching riots unfold on the news, I began interning at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Riots had ignited the city of Baltimore and sparked debate across Mississippi State University’s campus over the issue of police brutality following Freddie Gray’s death in police custody.  Read more here.