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In 2004, Thomas Hargrove, a 61-year-old retired news reporter from Virginia, became aware of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Supplementary Homicide Report (https://ucr.fbi.gov/) and contemplated whether it was possible to teach a computer how to spot serial killers. He spent months trying to develop an algorithm which would identify unsolved cases with enough commonalities to suggest the same murderer. Hargrove eventually founded the Murder Accountability Project (MAP) (http://murderdata.org/), a small nonprofit seeking to make FBI murder data more…

A new smartphone application has law enforcement concerned about sexual predators gaining access to children’s private information. In a matter of minutes, anyone – including sexual predators – can get on the Live.me application and watch videos of people near them and gather information the user provides. From Facebook to Instagram to Twitter, there are now so many different ways people can “go live” on social media. The one big difference with this app is that anyone can watch and…

Recently, the Los Angeles, California, Police Commission adopted a revised use-of-force policy which calls on officers to avoid resorting to deadly force by de-escalating the tension in interactions with the public. The policy has the backing of the union representing the Los Angeles Police Department’s more than 8,000 rank-and-file officers. LAPD officials said that, with the recent focus on de-escalation, and now the adoption of the revised policy and training programs, the focus is on minimizing the number of police shootings…

New toolkit presents practical strategies based on feedback from community members and law enforcement practitioners The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) in partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) announced the release of a new toolkit which provides resources to help build relationships of trust between law enforcement agencies and communities of color. Bridging the Trust Gap Between Law Enforcement and Communities of Color Toolkit identifies challenges which often plague law…

Following the tragic shooting of nine African-American churchgoers attending a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in June 2015, law enforcement in Charleston, South Carolina, acted quickly to identify Dylann Roof as the suspect. Using surveillance footage from the church, law enforcement pulled photos of Roof and distributed them throughout the media. Less than 16 hours after the attack, police had arrested the suspect nearly four hours away from Charleston. Police were able to quickly identify and apprehend this dangerous felon,…