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  • What's Happened To Hawaii's Police Shootings Review Board? Audio icon

    June 17, 2020 |

    Honolulu Civil Beat |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Hawaii

    The groundswell for greater accountability in police shootings has barely caused a ripple in Hawaii, where the state’s Law Enforcement Officer Independent Review board has finished only one case in its first three years of existence and has suspended meetings during the pandemic. With one of its two citizen member slots vacant on an otherwise law-enforcement-heavy board, the panel fails a basic tenet of accountability by severely limiting public access to the cases it’s considering and its deliberations, says one critic.

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  • This Seattle protest zone is police-free. So volunteers are stepping up to provide security.

    June 16, 2020 |

    The Washington Post |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    In Seattle's police-free street encampment that sprang up during protests over policing abuses, a mostly unarmed group of volunteer "sentinels" has defused a number of potential problems while largely avoiding the use of force. Trained in de-escalation and mediation tactics, the sentinels have used listening techniques to understand people's anger or mental state. Among the incidents they have addressed: fights, attempted vandalism of storefronts, visits from armed people who wanted to confront a supposed leftist threat, and the attempted arson of a police precinct building.

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  • Organizing for Help in a Pandemic

    June 16, 2020 |

    Inside Higher Ed |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Graduate students at several major universities organized to secure benefits during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, the University of Illinois Graduate Employees Organization fought for and won the expansion of mental health services and summer health care coverage, as well as free summer housing for international graduate students who cannot return home due to travel restrictions. After graduate students at the University of Texas Austin demonstrated and 1,400 signed a petition, the dean granted expanded funding opportunities and a commitment to finding a healthcare plan that ensures no coverage gap.

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  • Two Countries Dismantled Their Police to Start Fresh. It Worked—Up to a Point.

    June 13, 2020 |

    Wall Street Journal |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Ukraine

    Georgia and Ukraine offer cautionary advice to Americans whose mass protests seek structural changes in policing, even abolishing entire police forces. The same was true in those two countries. But, in both cases, initial successes at replacing corrupt police forces ended up reversed or at least limited by backsliding, as other parts of government and society resisted the changes.

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  • What voting by mail looks like when it works

    June 12, 2020 |

    The Washington Post |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Colorado

    Vote-by-mail in Colorado makes voting easier. Citizens are automatically registered to vote by the DMV when they get a license. Voter data is updated monthly by the post office to increase voter roll accuracy. Voters get an email or text when their ballot is sent out and unique bar codes allow ballots to be tracked with a Postal Service app. Ballots can be returned by mail, with postage covered if needed, or at an official drop-off location and signatures on the back of the envelope are matched to DMV records. For transparency, voters can watch officials process ballots in person or on a live stream.

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  • Community groups have consistently failed to improve policing. These advocates are pushing a new way.

    June 11, 2020 |

    Mother Jones |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    Civilian oversight panels serving as watchdogs and disciplinary enforcers for police departments have a generally poor record of effectiveness, thanks to multiple structural flaws. But examples of successful oversight are multiplying, and thanks to protests of police violence many more cities are working to establish bodies with real power to investigate wrongdoing in specific cases and effect change throughout an agency. One city getting high marks for its program is Denver, where the Office of Independent Monitor succeeded in pressing for new use-of-force rules, which cut incidents by 21% in a year.

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  • American Indian patrol in Minneapolis credited with saving buildings during protests

    June 11, 2020 |

    Minnesota Star Tribune |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

    Volunteer street patrols organized by the American Indian Movement, the national civil rights group, saved the heart of the Twin Cities’ native American community from damage during the looting and arson that broke out during protests over police brutality in Minneapolis. AIM street patrols that had been created in 1968 were revived for the June 2020 unrest. Local businesses praised the effort for protecting their buildings, often by standing guard overnight armed with walkie-talkies and sometimes with guns.

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  • What Estonia could teach us about internet voting in a post-pandemic world

    June 11, 2020 |

    VentureBeat |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Estonia

    Estonia’s i-Voting system is currently used by 46.7% of voters and allows them to vote from home using a government-issued smart card. To vote, residents need a computer with a card reader or can have their encrypted ID linked to their cell phone SIM card. They can track their vote with a QR code and are able to change their choices any time during the 10-day voting period. Estonia is currently the only country to use this method, in part because eroding government trust has prevented the use of centralized systems that track personal information.

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  • Democracy isn't working: five ideas that are already helping to fix the problem

    June 10, 2020 |

    The Correspondent |

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    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: Kenya

    Communities around the world are increasing citizen participation in political decision-making in innovative ways. Participatory budgets allow locals to decide how cities spend money and in some Kenyan cities this has successfully engaged marginalized communities. Citizens’ Initiative Reviews in Oregon and Representative Population Samples in Brazil have allowed the public to weigh in on important policies. In Taiwan, citizen-led digital participation platforms helped to control the coronavirus and avoid major shutdowns. These alternatives require funding and public trust, both of which can be hard to get.

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  • This is how the Police Advisory Commission should work in Philadelphia

    June 10, 2020 |

    The Philadelphia Citizen |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Truly independent citizen review boards can serve as an effective check on police misconduct if they are structured properly, but too many cities are like Philadelphia, where a lack of power and resources means they serve mainly as window dressing. The history of the Philadelphia Police Advisory Commission shows how initial efforts by community groups to establish real oversight fizzled through political gamesmanship and limits on the panel’s power to investigate and discipline. More promising models exist in Phoenix, Denver, and St. Louis.

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