Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

DNA Collection Is the New Fingerprinting

June 3, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
dna-collection

On Monday, the Supreme Court gave the OK to the controversial practice of cops collecting DNA samples from crime suspects under arrest. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices decided that swabbing a person’s cheek prior to their conviction of any crime did not constitute an unreasonable search—so long as the suspect was under arrest “for a serious offense” and had been brought “to the station to be detained in custody.” According to NBC News, 28 states and the federal government already adhere to this practice. This case dates back to the 2009 arrest of 26-year-old Alonzo King on assault ... Read More

More like this: Science
Tags: , , , ,

How to Conjure a Ghost to Get a Murderer to Confess

May 16, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
ghost-prisoner

The proliferation of projection technology and electrical gadgets in the 1920s allowed people to conjure spirits. Well, spirits of a mechanical variety anyway. These ghoulish Jazz Age illusions entertained audiences and fooled ardent believers. But some thought that maybe this wave of high-tech ghosts could be put to use beyond the parlor tricks of supposed mystics. The November 1924 issue of Science and Invention magazine proposed using a slide projector and a little smoke to coax a confession out of alleged murderers—a "novel third degree method," as they put it. From the ... Read More

More like this: Science
Tags: , , , , ,

Human Lie Detectors: The Death of the Dead Giveaway

September 13, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
shutterstock_91060508-h1

We’ve all been lied to, and most of us have a high opinion of our ability to tell a lie from the truth. Yet research repeatedly shows that confidence to be misplaced and that judges, customs inspectors, and yes, detectives, make lousy lie detectors. Those in law enforcement are trained to “read” body language, affect, facial expressions, mannerisms, and ways of speaking, and to believe that they can trust their gut. They learn that if a suspect averts their gaze, touches their nose, chews a fingernail, strokes the back of their head, slouches or fidgets, they are likely lying and ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs
Tags: , ,

Red Flags: Early Warnings of Wrongful Convictions

September 6, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Wrongful Convictions

While the law enforcement community widely views American jurisprudence as rich with built-in safeguards, from the right to counsel to the right not to be physically abused by police officers, citizens’ protections aren’t always up to the task. People are sometimes convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. Analyzing the errors that led to wrongful convictions, recurring themes emerge. Steven Drizin, clinical professor at Northwestern University of Law, and cofounder of its Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, and social psychologist Richard Leo posit that the errors are ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs
Tags: ,

Electric Glove Helps Police Quell Rioters

August 29, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Electric glove in the Sept 1935 issue of Popular Science

With protests ramping up this week at the Republican National Convention, Tampa police have been out on city streets in full riot gear. Police outnumber protesters in Tampa 4 to 1 but thankfully there hasn't been any threat of violence (yet). Should things get hairy, the modern American police officer has many a weapon at his disposal to subdue protesters, perhaps none more controversial than the taser. Electroshock weapons have become more and more popular in the past decade in police departments across the country. Proponents of electroshock weapons claim that tasers actually save lives ... Read More

More like this: Time Machine
Tags: , ,

DIY Police Scanner of 1935

August 21, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Cover of the October 1935 issue of Short Wave Craft magazine

Yesterday I had the rather strange experience of reading a tweet about a grass fire burning not far from my apartment. Not five seconds later I heard fire truck sirens in the distance. This, it would seem, is the new pace of breaking news. I follow about half a dozen Los Angeles police scanner accounts on Twitter, each with their own beat: Venice, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Koreatown, and LAScanner. These accounts are run by people who tune into radio frequencies used by police, fire, and medical responders in order to tweet about events as they happen. Social media sites like Twitter ... Read More

More like this: Time Machine
Tags: ,

Bad Economy = More Domestic Violence … But Less Crime?

May 11, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

Strange tidings from the world of law enforcement. A recent survey of 700 American police agencies found that most – 56 percent – believe that the still-grinding recession is spurring an increase in domestic violence. (You can read the whole report by the Police Executive Research Forum here.) Seems logical. "When stresses in the home increase because of unemployment and other hardships, domestic violence increases," Camden, NJ police chief Scott Thomson told USA Today in discussing the survey. But what’s odd is that violent crime has been going consistently down, right ... Read More

More like this: Findings
Tags: , , ,

David Onek — Law Enforcement Facilitator

March 3, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
David Onek

Improving the juvenile justice system has been the focus of David Onek's professional life for some 20 years. He uses an innovative approach that might seem obvious but has been underutilized: He gets everyone in the field talking to each other. Onek's experience in influential policy, governmental and academic positions in the San Francisco Bay Area has led him to believe that because of sharp disagreements dividing them, law enforcement officers, members of community groups, prisoners and corrections officers are unable to bridge much smaller gaps on many issues — or even to realize how ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs, March-April 2011, Views Reviews and Interviews
Tags: , , , ,

How to Stop Suicide by Cop

February 21, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Standing before a classroom of police officers, Lt. Mark Poisson of the Wethersfield, Connecticut Police Department cues up video of a young man talking about the night he tried to get Poisson to kill him. "Seth*," who was 19 at the time and attending college in New Jersey, had already attempted suicide twice. He'd never been in trouble with the law but had spent years crippled by depression, and he was searching for the best way to die. Eventually, he decided the surest method was a gun. But he didn't own one; neither did his parents. That's when it came to him: Police have guns. The ... Read More

More like this: Cover Story, Culture, Health, March-April 2011
Tags: , , , ,

Cops and College: Do Police Need Book Smarts?

September 2, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

Weighing in on a long-simmering dispute, a recent study for the Police Quarterly shows that officers with some college education are less likely to resort to force than those who never attend college. The study found no difference with respect to officer education when it came to arrests or searches of suspects. But it found that in encounters with crime suspects, officers with some college education or a four-year degree resorted to using force 56 percent of the time, while officers with no college education used force 68 percent of the time. "Force" included verbally threatening suspects, ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs
Tags: , , ,