Law Commons^™

The Blurred Blue Line: Municipal Liability, Police Indemnification, And Financial Accountability In Section 1983 Litigation, Teresa E. Ravenell, Armando Brigandi

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Root Cause Analysis: A Tool To Promote Officer Safety And Reduce Officer Involved Shootings Over Time, John Hollway, Calvin Lee, Sean Smoot

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fines: The Folly Of Conflating The Power To Fine With The Power To Tax, Mildred Wigfall Robinson

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Police We Trust, Rachel Moran

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of A Mandatory Body-Worn Camera Policy On Officer Perceptions Of Accountability, Oversight, And Departmental Culture, Jordan M. Hyatt, Renee J. Mitchell, Barak Ariel

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Feeding The Machine: Policing, Crime Data, & Algorithms, Elizabeth E. Joh

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Investigative Dynamics Of The Use Of Malware By Law Enforcement, Paul Ohm

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The police have started to use malware—and other forms of government hacking—to solve crimes. Some fear coming abuses—the widespread use of malware when traditional investigative techniques would work just as well or to investigate political opponents or dissident speakers. This Article argues that these abuses will be checked, at least in part, by the very nature of malware and the way it must be controlled. This analysis utilizes a previously unformalized research methodology called “investigative dynamics” to come to these conclusions. Because every use of malware risks spoiling the tool—by revealing a software vulnerability that can be patched—the police will …

Private Prisons And The Need For Greater Transparency: Private Prison Information Act, Libbi L. Vilher

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Private prisons are not subject to the same regulations as government prisons. Particularly, private prisons are exempt from the requirements set forth in the Freedom of Information Act and its state equivalents, which provide that the public has an enforceable right to request certain records from government agencies. Numerous efforts made by members of Congress to enact the Private Prison Information Act, a bill that would subject private prisons to disclosure laws found in the Freedom of Information Act, have been unsuccessful. Such efforts to strip the veil of secrecy that shades private prisons from public scrutiny are especially important …

Utah V. Strieff: Lemonade Stands And Dragnet Policing, Guy Padula

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Walking While Trans: Profiling Of Transgender Women By Law Enforcement, And The Problem Of Proof, Leonore F. Carpenter, R. Barrett Marshall

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Violent State: Black Women's Invisible Struggle Against Police Violence, Michelle S. Jacobs

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Next Step In Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform: Passing The Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act Of 2014, Daniel Reed

Catholic University Law Review

Civil asset forfeiture is an operation of legal fiction that enables the government to seize property without an underlying conviction of the property owner. Federal authorities bring thousands of civil asset forfeiture cases annually, often against the property of owners who have not been charged with a crime. Such cases can result in unjust outcomes and denials of due process to property owners. To address this controversy, Representative Tim Walberg proposed several reforms to federal civil asset forfeiture laws known as the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2014 (CAFRA 2014).

After discussing the history of civil asset forfeiture, this …

Rationing Criminal Justice, Richard A. Bierschbach, Stephanos Bibas

Michigan Law Review

Of the many diagnoses of American criminal justice’s ills, few focus on externalities. Yet American criminal justice systematically overpunishes in large part because few mechanisms exist to force consideration of the full social costs of criminal justice interventions. Actors often lack good information or incentives to minimize the harms they impose. Part of the problem is structural: criminal justice is fragmented vertically among governments, horizontally among agencies, and individually among self-interested actors. Part is a matter of focus: doctrinally and pragmatically, actors overwhelmingly view each case as an isolated, short-term transaction to the exclusion of broader, long-term, and aggregate effects. …

How Law Enforcement Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) Could Improve Tactical Response To Active Shooter Situations: The Case Of The 2017 Las Vegas Shooting, Ryan J. Wallace, Jon M. Loffi

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Using a case study methodology, this paper assesses the unique tactical challenges faced by law enforcement officers responding to the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas active shooter incident. The authors assessed the tactical strengths of the assailant, Stephen Paddock, and challenges faced by law enforcement personnel. The authors present several proposed applications of unmanned aircraft systems that could have potentially mitigated the active shooter’s tactical advantages.

Looking At Justice Through A Lens Of Healing And Reconnection, Annalise Buth, Lynn Cohn

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Panel Discussion: Expanding Our Conception Of Justice

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Collateral Visibility: A Socio-Legal Study Of Police Body Camera Adoption, Privacy, And Public Disclosure In Washington State, Bryce Clayton Newell

Indiana Law Journal

Law enforcement use of body-worn cameras has become a subject of significant public and scholarly debate in recent years. This Article presents findings from a study of the legal and social implications of body-worn camera adoption by two police departments in Washington State. In particular, this study focuses on the public disclosure of body-worn camera footage under Washington State’s public records act, state privacy law, and original empirical findings related to officer attitudes about—and perceptions of—the impact of these laws on their work, their own personal privacy, and the privacy of the citizens they serve. The law in Washington State …

The Ambulance Chasing Epidemic In Texas, Ronald Rodriguez

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Barratry and solicitation of professional employment is illegal and unethical. The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct define barratry as ethical misconduct and a serious crime. Unfortunately, for citizens and law-abiding attorneys of Texas, the criminal and ethical prohibitions against barratry have rarely been enforced. Consequently, barratry continues to proliferate rapidly throughout South Texas. For lawyers who engage in this unethical practice, the potential for large financial gain proves irresistible given the virtually nonexistent risk of prosecution. The lack of robust and successful prosecutions has created an optimal environment for barratry to proliferate. This Article discusses the current barratry epidemic …

Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Professor Destiny Peery

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Litigating Police Misconduct: Does The Litigation Process Matter? Does It Work?

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Paul Butler

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Reforming The Ranks: Policy Initiatives To Ensure Police Accountability & Improve Police And Community Relations

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Building Movement: Racial Injustice, Transformative Justice And Reimagined Policing

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment And The Police In The Digital Age, Kermit V. Lipez

Maine Law Review

In almost thirty-two years as a judge, I have written over 1300 opinions. Each of these opinions was important to the parties involved, yet some have gained more prominence than others. This essay addresses one of those—a 2011 decision that involves the First Amendment, the complex relationship between the police and the communities they serve, and the revolution in communications technology. I emphasize two points as I begin. I have enormous respect for police officers and their work. They risk their lives on the job—a reality that we have seen far too often in recent years—and go to work every …

Unspoken Immunity And Reimagined Justice: The Potential For Implementing Restorative Justice And Community Justice Models In Police-Related Shootings, Hannah Walker

Pace Law Review

The purpose of this Note is to analyze the limitations of the criminal legal system when faced with cases of police-related shootings. Specifically, I will discuss two instances of police (mis)conduct that captured the attention of the nation in the past three years: the non-indictment of Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann and the conviction of NYPD Officer Peter Liang. First, by assessing the circumstances and responses to those two cases, I will argue that the criminal legal system is inherently incapable of responding to and remedying the violence that occurs in situations laced with power, privilege, and emotional trauma. Second, …

Federal Law Enforcement: Law Enforcement As Political Question, Zachary S. Price

The Judges' Book

No abstract provided.

Highway To Hell: The Privatized Prison Transportation Industry And The Long Road To Reform, Jaden P. Rhea

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Principled Approach To Separating The Fusion Between Nursing Homes And Prisons, Mirko Bagaric, Marissa Florio, Brienna Bagaric

Pepperdine Law Review

Elderly people are a far lower risk to community safety than other individuals. Despite this, elderly prisoners are filling prisons at an increasing rate. The number of elderly prisoners in the United States has increased more than fifteen-fold over the past three decades—far more than the general imprisonment rate. This trend is empirically and normatively flawed. Older offenders should be treated differently from other offenders. The key reason for this is that elderly offenders reoffend at about half the rate of other released prisoners, but the cost of incarcerating the elderly—due to their more pressing health needs—is more than double. …

From Harm Reduction To Community Engagement: Redefining The Goals Of American Policing In The Twenty-First Century, Tom R. Tyler

Northwestern University Law Review

Society would gain if the police moved away from the goal of harm reduction via crime reduction and toward promoting the economic, social, and political vitality of American communities. Research suggests that the police can contribute to this goal if they design and implement their policies and practices in ways that promote public trust. Such trust develops when the police exercise their authority in ways that people evaluate as being procedurally just.

Racing Abnormality, Normalizing Race: The Origins Of America's Peculiar Carceral State And Its Prospects For Democratic Transformation Today, Jonathan Simon

Northwestern University Law Review

For those struggling with criminal justice reform today, the long history of failed efforts to close the gap between the promise of legal equality and the practice of our police forces and prison systems can seem mysterious and frustrating. Progress has been made in establishing stronger rights for individuals in the investigatory and sanctioning stages of the criminal process; yet, the patterns of over-incarceration and police violence, which are especially concentrated on people of color, have actually gotten worse during the same period. Seen in terms of its deeper history however, the carceral state is no longer puzzling: it has …