tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/law-enforcement-6760/articlesLaw enforcement – The Conversation2023-11-01T14:37:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2159202023-11-01T14:37:13Z2023-11-01T14:37:13ZGiraffes could go extinct – the 5 biggest threats they face<p>Giraffes are the world’s tallest mammals and an African icon, but they are also vulnerable to extinction. </p>
<p>Giraffe populations have <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/9194/136266699">declined</a> by 40% in the last 30 years, and there are now fewer than 70,000 mature individuals left in the wild. What are the causes of this alarming decline, and what can be done to protect these gentle giants? </p>
<p>The five biggest threats to giraffes are habitat loss, insufficient law enforcement, ecological changes, climate change, and lack of awareness. Below, I will tell you about these threats and what is being done to save them. </p>
<p>I will also explain a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16970">study</a> I was a part of that ranked these threats in terms of each one’s danger of causing giraffe extinction, and whether human actions can alleviate that danger. The study used data from more than 3,100 giraffes identified over eight years in an unfenced 4,500km² area of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarangire_Ecosystem">Tarangire ecosystem</a> in Tanzania. We used the data to simulate how environmental and land use changes could affect the giraffe population over 50 years. </p>
<p>The findings can guide conservation actions.</p>
<h2>Habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss</h2>
<p>Giraffes need large areas of savanna with abundant native bushes and trees to feed on. The biggest threat to giraffes is the degradation, fragmentation and loss of their habitats through human activities such as farming and human settlement expansion.</p>
<p>Habitat loss outside protected areas is the main reason for the recent decline in giraffe numbers. National parks provide most of the remaining habitat. Some good habitat remains unprotected but is cared for by pastoralists. </p>
<p>Traditional pastoralists like the Maasai in northern Tanzania <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520273559/savannas-of-our-birth">maintain</a> large spaces of natural savanna where wildlife and people thrive together. </p>
<p>However, most people now living in areas that were giraffe habitat are sedentary. As populations of farmers and townspeople expand, giraffes are forced into smaller and more isolated patches of land. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.01.017">reduces</a> their access to food and water, and increases their vulnerability. </p>
<p>Conservationists are working to safeguard existing unprotected giraffe habitat and maintain or restore the connections among protected areas. Community-based <a href="https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.21549">natural resource management</a> is central to this activity. It gives local communities the legal power to protect their land and resources. </p>
<h2>Insufficient law enforcement</h2>
<p>Another major threat to giraffes is illegal hunting (<a href="https://esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1007/s10144-015-0499-9">poaching</a>) for bushmeat markets. This is usually controlled by <a href="https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2020/Wildlife-crime-closing-ranks-on-serious-crime-in-the-illegal-animal-trade">international criminal syndicates</a>. </p>
<p>Strong wildlife law enforcement is the best tool to combat this threat. Conservationists are working to strengthen local and international law enforcement around wildlife crimes, and to reduce the demand for giraffe products. At the grassroots level, this requires supporting anti-poaching patrols by rangers and village game scouts. It’s also essential that communities should have legal alternative ways to make a living. </p>
<h2>Ecological changes</h2>
<p>A third major threat to giraffes is human-caused ecological change that affects their food availability and mobility. These changes include deforestation of savannas for fuelwood and charcoal production, mining activity, and road and pipeline building. Water diversion and groundwater pumping also affect their habitat and access to water.</p>
<p>Mining, roads and pipelines can disrupt the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93604-4_12">natural movement patterns</a> of wildlife, leading to smaller, more isolated populations that are more susceptible to local extinction. </p>
<p>Conservationists are promoting sustainable forestry, new cooking techniques such as gas stoves, water conservation and planning for groundwater resources, and building wildlife crossings into roads and pipelines.</p>
<h2>Climate change</h2>
<p>Climate change from human-caused <a href="https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc226754/m1/1/">carbon dioxide pollution</a> is forecast to increase temperatures and rainfall in many African savanna areas. Giraffes are unaffected by the higher temperatures observed so far, but increased seasonal rainfall is associated with <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-023-02645-4">lower giraffe survival</a> due to disease and lower food quality. </p>
<p>Over the longer term, more rainfall will create conditions favourable to increased woody plant cover in savannas. This could help giraffes by increasing their food supply, but only if enough natural savanna is preserved from human exploitation.</p>
<h2>Lack of knowledge and awareness</h2>
<p>The fifth major threat to giraffes is the lack of knowledge and awareness about their conservation needs. Giraffes are often overlooked and underrepresented in wildlife research, funding and policy. Many people are unaware that giraffes are endangered and face multiple threats across Africa. </p>
<p>Conservationists are working to increase knowledge and awareness about giraffes locally and worldwide. Scientists are studying giraffe <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.22044">demography</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyac007">diet</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13582">behaviour</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.10160">genetics</a>, and there is a large <a href="https://www.africasgiants.org/natures-giants-news">environmental education programme</a> in Tanzania, the US and Europe. </p>
<h2>Creating a safe future for giraffes</h2>
<p>Giraffes are facing a silent extinction crisis in Africa. But there is still hope that they can be saved if people understand and address the threats. </p>
<p>The new <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16970">study</a> I coauthored ranked threats and looked at potentially mitigating actions. Our simulation showed that the greatest risk factor for local giraffe extinction was a reduction in wildlife law enforcement leading to more poaching. In the model, an increase in law enforcement would mitigate the negative effects of climate change and the expansion of towns along the edges of protected areas. The study highlights the great utility of law enforcement as a nature conservation tool. </p>
<p>Given their vast historical Africa-wide range and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347219300260">individual home ranges</a> of thousands of hectares, giraffes will not likely survive only within the boundaries of small, fragmented protected areas. I propose as part of our evidence-based recommendations that rangelands used by wildlife and pastoralists as movement pathways be permanently protected from farming, mining and infrastructure. This will give people as well as wide-ranging animals like giraffes freedom to roam. </p>
<p>It will also require the expansion of wildlife law enforcement in village lands outside formal protected areas. </p>
<p>These measures would help make it possible for people and giraffes to thrive together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derek E. Lee receives funding from Penn State University, Berlin World Wild, Sacramento Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, Tulsa Zoo, Zoo Miami, Cincinnati Zoo, Como Park Zoo, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Anne Innis Dagg Foundation, and Save the Giraffes. He is affiliated with Wild Nature Institute.</span></em></p>Giraffes are vulnerable to extinction, mainly due to habitat loss and killing for bushmeat markets. The good news is human actions can alleviate that danger.Derek E. Lee, Associate Research Professor of Biology, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2072722023-06-22T12:32:16Z2023-06-22T12:32:16ZHow pardoning extremists undermines the rule of law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533239/original/file-20230621-26-d8q0qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C25%2C5534%2C3642&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former President Donald Trump has said he may pardon recently convicted leaders of the Proud Boys. Here, Proud Boys members protest in Salem, Ore., on Jan. 8, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-proud-boys-make-the-ok-sign-with-their-hands-news-photo/1237612250?adppopup=true">Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the past 10 years, <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/04/25/quantifying-the-rise-of-americas-far-right">there has been</a> an increase in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/13/nyregion/right-wing-rhetoric-threats-violence.html">far-right political violence in the United States</a>. While scholars have pointed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820914385">to</a> several <a href="http://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2021.0059">possible</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2013.755912">reasons</a> – and often, combinations of explanations – the trend is clear. </p>
<p>This violence has coincided with the growing influence of far-right <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/right-wing-extremism-2022-primaries">state and federal political candidates</a>, who collectively have excited and mobilized extremist communities both <a href="https://pt.icct.nl/article/not-so-silent-majority-automated-content-analysis-anti-government-online-communities">online</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2018.1494120">in person</a>. </p>
<p>In response, federal and state law enforcement officials have focused <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-may-24-2023">increasing attention on these movements</a> with the hope of deterring political violence and lowering the <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/topics/preventing-terrorism">risk of domestic extremism</a>. Many who participated in political violence – including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/nyregion/cesar-sayoc-sentencing-pipe-bombing.html">Cesar Sayoc, who sent pipe bombs to Democratic officials</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/25/1178116193/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-verdict">Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/08/1085201623/enrique-tarrio-proud-boys-arrested-indicted-jan-6">Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio</a> – have faced arrest, prosecution and, in some cases, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/28/1132405440/domestic-terrorism-investigations-and-arrests-shot-up-in-2021">jail or prison sentences</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, a number of conservative elected officials and politicians have publicly expressed interest in pardoning some of these same people. I am a scholar who studies the individuals, groups and movements that <a href="https://www.michaelhbecker.com/">use political violence</a>. Research shows that this use of the pardon power can damage the <a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/overview-rule-law">rule of law</a> in the United States. It undermines one of the tools against violence that law enforcement can bring to bear - deterrence.</p>
<p>The American Bar Association describes the rule of law as a <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/resources/rule-of-law/">foundational principle for the U.S. justice system</a>: “No one is above the law, everyone is treated equally under the law, everyone is held accountable to the same laws, there are clear and fair processes for enforcing laws, there is an independent judiciary, and human rights are guaranteed for all.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533241/original/file-20230621-17-maiylr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gray-haired man in a blue suit and white shirt, talking while gesturing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533241/original/file-20230621-17-maiylr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533241/original/file-20230621-17-maiylr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533241/original/file-20230621-17-maiylr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533241/original/file-20230621-17-maiylr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533241/original/file-20230621-17-maiylr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533241/original/file-20230621-17-maiylr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533241/original/file-20230621-17-maiylr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has said he intends to pardon the Army veteran who was recently convicted of killing a Black Lives Matter protester.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/texas-gov-greg-abbott-speaks-during-a-news-conference-at-news-photo/1497020155?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Diminishing deterrence</h2>
<p>In a recent CNN town hall, former President Donald Trump said that if reelected, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/11/politics/transcript-cnn-town-hall-trump/index.html">he is interested in pardoning</a> the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jury-convicts-four-leaders-proud-boys-seditious-conspiracy-related-us-capitol-breach">recently convicted leadership of the Proud Boys</a> and others who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. </p>
<p>This is not the first time that Trump has suggested he is considering <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/politics/trump-pardon-us-capitol/index.html">such an offer</a>. When he was president, he did pardon <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/hammond-pardon-bundy">anti-government extremists</a>. </p>
<p>The pardon power is not limited to a sitting president, however; state governors can issue pardons for state crimes. And some have expressed similar interest in pardoning those convicted of politically motivated criminal acts in recent years. </p>
<p>Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has said he intends to pardon the Army veteran who was recently convicted of killing a Black Lives Matter protester and was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/10/daniel-perry-sentenced-murder-blm-protester-texas">sentenced to 25 years in prison</a>. </p>
<p>In August 2021, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson pardoned the couple <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/06/missouri-couple-who-pointed-guns-at-blm-protesters-seek-return-of-firearms">convicted of gun charges associated</a> with brandishing firearms at protesters during the racial justice marches over the summer of 2020. </p>
<p>Together, these public statements about, and the use of, pardons for politically motivated crime undercut the ability of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3053565">law enforcement and the intelligence community to deter</a> domestic political extremism.</p>
<p>At its simplest, <a href="https://hackettpublishing.com/history/17-18-history/on-crimes-and-punishments">deterrence means that</a> when people consider whether to do something wrong or illegal, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427893030002001">they think about the consequences that they, and others, face or have faced</a>. </p>
<p>When punishment is certain, closer in time to the criminal behavior and proportionally severe, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/670398">people will be less likely to commit crimes</a>. Research in criminology has shown that of these three aspects, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12248">increasing</a> the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/670398">certainty of punishment can lower the incidence of crime</a>. This is important, because when a pardon is offered, the certainty of punishment is dramatically diminished – lowering the potential deterrent.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Missouri Gov. Mike Parson pardoned this couple, convicted of gun charges associated with brandishing firearms at protesters during the racial justice marches over the summer of 2020.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Criminal sanctuary</h2>
<p>Since Jan. 6, 2021, over 1,000 of the people who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/25/1165022885/1000-defendants-january-6-capitol-riot">have been criminally charged</a>. </p>
<p>Of these, more than 500 <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/04/06/jan6-riots-doj-charged">have pleaded guilty</a>, and the Department of Justice has secured convictions <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/25/1165022885/1000-defendants-january-6-capitol-riot">in all but one trial</a>. </p>
<p>In other circumstances, the legal consequences could be expected to deter others from political violence in the U.S. However, when politicians signal that those responsible for or guilty of violence aligned with their interests could be shielded from punishment – as shown by the use of pardons – punishment seems less likely. This message of criminal sanctuary – relief from punishment – is what former President Trump, Gov. Abbott and Gov. Parson are communicating.</p>
<p>Recent research draws a direct connection between criminal sanctuary and political violence. “When people perceive that they will be provided sanctuary for their criminal actions … this too <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-030521-102553">leads to crime</a>,” write scholars Laura Dugan and Daren Fisher. </p>
<p>In my research, I look at how these signals of criminal sanctuary by politicians and elected officials are interpreted and acted upon by far-right online communities in the United States. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://pt.icct.nl/article/not-so-silent-majority-automated-content-analysis-anti-government-online-communities">series of recent studies</a>, my co-authors and I looked at what members of far-right online communities talked about and how it changed from before the November 2020 U.S. presidential election through the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.</p>
<p>Over the three-month period, when compared with mainstream online communities, far-right communities, most of them accepting of political violence, shifted their focus from discussions of disinformation around the election to specifically advocating for anti-government violence and civil war. </p>
<p>We looked at how far-right online communities responded when then-President Trump called on his supporters in a tweet to come to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, saying it “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/13/1111341161/how-trumps-will-be-wild-tweet-drew-rioters-to-the-capitol-on-jan-6">will be wild</a>!” These users listened to the then president and responded with a sentiment of self-righteousness and a greater focus on the idea that they were acting as soldiers on behalf of Trump. </p>
<p>Consequently, members of those online communities played an important role in the Jan. 6 <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/pdf/GPO-J6-REPORT.pdf">attack on the Capitol</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, the bipartisan House committee investigating the attack highlighted former President Trump’s “will be wild” tweet as a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/man-charged-capitol-riot-tells-jan-6-committee-wishes-didnt-buy-trumps-rcna37895">call to action for his supporters</a> and a signal that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/nyregion/protesters-blaming-trump-pardon.html">their actions on his behalf wouldn’t result in legal consequences</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/law-justice/">“tough on crime” stances taken by many</a> <a href="https://www.fox26houston.com/news/governor-abbott-pushes-for-tougher-laws-on-criminals-securing-border-and-school-choice-in-state-address">conservative</a> <a href="https://governor.mo.gov/press-releases/archive/governor-parson-continues-efforts-combat-violent-crime-protect-missouri">politicians</a>, the use of pardons to offer criminal sanctuary likely undermines the rule of law and increases the risks of political violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207272/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael H. Becker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The promise of pardons to offer criminal sanctuary likely undermines the rule of law and increases the risks of political violence.Michael H. Becker, Doctoral Student, Department of Justice, Law, and Criminology, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2068342023-06-15T12:37:31Z2023-06-15T12:37:31ZHow ‘constitutional county’ declarations undermine the Constitution – a legal scholar explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531818/original/file-20230613-19-1o7sl2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C5884%2C3920&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ottawa County Commissioners Joe Moss, left, and Sylvia Rhodea ran for the positions vowing they would 'thwart tyranny' in the community.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ottawa-county-commissioners-joe-moss-left-and-sylvia-rhodea-news-photo/1252065466?adppopup=true">Evan Cobb for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/05/ottawa-county-becomes-constitutional-county.html">Declaring its community a “constitutional county</a>” on May 23, 2023, the Board of County Commissioners in Ottawa County, Michigan, voted 9-1 not to enforce any law or rule that “restricts the rights of any law-abiding citizen affirmed by the United States Constitution.” </p>
<p>Nor will the county provide aid or resources to any state or federal agency that county officials judge to be infringing on or restricting those rights.</p>
<p>Ottawa is not the first county in Michigan to declare itself a refuge from what its leaders say are anti- or unconstitutional actions undertaken by an overzealous state or federal authority. </p>
<p>Livingston County, also in Michigan, <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/livingston-declares-itself-constitutional-county-resist-gun-reforms">passed a similar resolution</a> in April 2023. </p>
<p>It is not clear how many there are, exactly, but there are also <a href="https://highlandscurrent.org/2023/03/31/editors-notebook-the-tricky-origins-of-the-constitutional-county/">self-designated constitutional counties</a> in Virginia, Texas, Nevada and New York. <a href="http://jfinn.faculty.wesleyan.edu/">As a scholar of constitutional theory</a>, I believe more will follow, especially in the <a href="https://tacticalgear.com/experts/second-amendment-sanctuary-reviewed-every-u-s-state-and-county">roughly 1,100 counties</a> of the nation’s 3,200 counties that have already declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries. </p>
<p>But where <a href="https://www.thetrace.org/2020/01/second-amendment-sanctuary-movement/">Second Amendment sanctuaries</a> aim to create havens for gun rights allegedly under siege, the constitutional county movement has a broader agenda. </p>
<p>One of the drafters of the Ottawa Resolution, for example, <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/05/ottawa-county-becomes-constitutional-county.html">explained</a>, “As we wrote this resolution … we recognized the need to protect not only Second Amendment rights but all constitutional rights. … We wish to highlight freedoms and constitutional rights which have been violated over the past few years, as well as those currently at risk due to societal and political pressures.” </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A news report about the Ottawa County, Michigan, vote to declare itself a ‘constitutional county.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Why constitutional counties are unconstitutional</h2>
<p>Although the two Michigan county resolutions are chiefly symbolic and do little more than encourage – rather than order – local law enforcement authorities and local officials to disregard federal laws they claim are unconstitutional, the dangers they pose to the U.S. constitutional system are substantial.</p>
<p>This way of thinking <a href="https://theconversation.com/sanctuaries-protecting-gun-rights-and-the-unborn-challenge-the-legitimacy-and-role-of-federal-law-122988">is profoundly mistaken</a> and undermines Americans’ collective commitment to constitutional democracy.</p>
<p>Declaring oneself a constitutional county undermines the authority of officials authorized to act under the Constitution. I believe it ultimately subverts the authority of the Constitution itself. </p>
<p>When these resolutions instruct county police not to enforce certain laws, such as red flag laws that allow the confiscation of firearms from certain people, they violate <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-6/#:%7E:text=Article%20VI%20Supreme%20Law&text=All%20Debts%20contracted%20and%20Engagements,Constitution%2C%20as%20under%20the%20Confederation.">Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution</a>. Article 6 declares that the Constitution itself and federal laws are “<a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-6/">the supreme Law of the Land</a>” and cannot be overruled or superseded by state laws or laws at lower levels of government. </p>
<p>So any county that claims to nullify federal laws it finds objectionable raises constitutional problems. So, too, do assertions of a right to obstruct federal law or to impede the exercise of federally guaranteed rights and liberties. </p>
<p>In both scenarios, <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/05/ottawa-county-becomes-constitutional-county.html">local authorities</a> claim they are under no constitutional obligation to enforce, or to <a href="https://www.livingstondaily.com/story/news/local/community/livingston-county/2023/04/25/livingston-declared-constitutional-county-in-second-amendment-reaffirmation/70147404007/">help state or federal officials enforce</a>, laws and regulations that are, in their view, plainly unconstitutional. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if the point is simply to refuse to assist federal officials in enforcing federal law, then that probably is not unconstitutional. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1996/95-1478">Printz v. United States</a>, the Supreme Court held in 1997 that federal officials cannot force state and local officials to enforce federal law. </p>
<h2>Constitutional principles – or politics?</h2>
<p>Among the constitutional liberties <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/05/ottawa-county-becomes-constitutional-county.html">Ottawa County officials think are at risk</a> is freedom of religion, which they say is threatened by state and federal diversity requirements in schools. Other rights they say are threatened include those granted by the Second Amendment and parental liberties; they also cite certain kinds of threats to individual liberty, such as COVID-19 mask requirements.</p>
<p>Notably absent were concerns about threats to reproductive autonomy, sexual and gender identities, or public safety endangered by firearms violence. Professions of constitutional fidelity by constitutional county advocates are more often about politics than real concern for the Constitution. </p>
<p>These declarations can be used – and I believe will be used – for pretty much any political agenda and to evade federal laws that some citizens find objectionable. </p>
<p>In doing so, they become little more than political excuses to end-run Article 6 of the Constitution whenever it suits. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531816/original/file-20230613-21-f5ywyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screen shot of an announcement about the upcoming vote on the constitutional county measure by the county commissioners." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531816/original/file-20230613-21-f5ywyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531816/original/file-20230613-21-f5ywyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531816/original/file-20230613-21-f5ywyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531816/original/file-20230613-21-f5ywyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531816/original/file-20230613-21-f5ywyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531816/original/file-20230613-21-f5ywyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531816/original/file-20230613-21-f5ywyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An announcement by ‘2A PATRIOT,’ a Michigan pro-Second Amendment group, about the Ottawa County commissioners meeting at which the constitutional county measure would be voted on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://2apatriot.org/f/ottawa-county-going-for-constitutional-county-status">2A PATRIOT</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Taking the Constitution seriously</h2>
<p>It is tempting to applaud any effort by citizens to take the Constitution seriously. As I wrote in my book “<a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700619627/">Peopling the Constitution</a>,” a healthy and vibrant constitutional democracy requires citizens who understand its promises and take some responsibility for making those promises a reality. </p>
<p>A resolution that simply makes a symbolic claim about federal law or about what the Constitution truly means, and does not order authorities to ignore or violate federal law, does not itself violate the Constitution. Such claims are a vital part of civic and constitutional debate in a healthy constitutional democracy. </p>
<p>But constitutional populism is a double-edged sword. The line between principled constitutional differences of opinion and partisan politics pretending to be a constitutional argument will not always be obvious or easy to discern. </p>
<p>When it substitutes partisanship for discernment, and assertion for argument, the constitutional counties movement undermines the very Constitution it purports to honor. </p>
<p><em>This story incorporates material from <a href="https://theconversation.com/sanctuaries-protecting-gun-rights-and-the-unborn-challenge-the-legitimacy-and-role-of-federal-law-122988">a previous story</a> in The Conversation by the author.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John E. Finn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By declaring a ‘constitutional county,’ local leaders assert they are creating a refuge from anti- or unconstitutional actions undertaken by an overzealous state or federal authority.John E. Finn, Professor Emeritus of Government, Wesleyan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2076812023-06-15T12:33:23Z2023-06-15T12:33:23ZHow the Unabomber’s unique linguistic fingerprints led to his capture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532034/original/file-20230614-19-yvo44e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C6%2C2230%2C1518&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ted Kaczynski was arrested after the longest and most expensive investigation in the FBI's history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/convicted-unabomber-theodore-kaczynski-is-escorted-by-us-news-photo/106884098?adppopup=true">Rich Pedroncelli/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Can the language someone uses be as unique as their fingerprints?</p>
<p>As I describe in my forthcoming book, “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781633888982/Linguistic-Fingerprints-How-Language-Creates-and-Reveals-Identity">Linguistic Fingerprints: How Language Creates and Reveals Identity</a>,” that was true in the case of Theodore Kaczynski.</p>
<p>Kaczynski, who was known as the <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/origin-ted-kaczynskis-infamous-nickname-145500991.html">Unabomber</a>, died in a North Carolina prison on June 10, 2023, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ted-kaczynski-unabomber-1197f597364b36e56bdbcaca9837bdc4">reportedly by suicide</a>.</p>
<p>Kaczynski had been a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/us/suspect-s-trail-suspect-memories-his-brilliance-shyness-but-little-else.html">math prodigy and a professor</a> at the University of California, Berkeley, before he withdrew from society and declared war on the modern world. </p>
<p>From a <a href="https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-and-courts/photos-a-look-inside-the-unabombers-montana-cabin/collection_41103cf1-dc68-5950-babc-17861f0b8858.html">remote cabin in Montana</a>, he sent a number of explosive devices through the mail. In other cases, he planted them. Between 1978 and 1995, 16 of his bombs <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/06/10/ted-kaczynski-dead-unabomber/">killed three people</a> and seriously injured nearly two dozen more.</p>
<p>Kaczynski’s crimes triggered the longest and <a href="https://en.as.com/latest_news/ted-kaczynski-the-unabomber-has-died-what-are-some-of-the-most-expensive-fbi-investigations-n/">most expensive</a> criminal investigation in U.S. history. Law enforcement had little to go on other than a few letters that the terrorist had sent to the media, as well as fragments of notes that had survived his device’s detonations.</p>
<h2>Spellings and word choices offer clues</h2>
<p>In 1995, there was a breakthrough. That’s when the Unabomber offered to pause his attacks if a newspaper published his manifesto about the evils of modern society. Controversially, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/20/us/publication-of-unabomber-s-tract-draws-mixed-response.html">The Washington Post did so</a>. The FBI supported the paper’s decision, hoping that someone would recognize the terrorist based on the writing style of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm">35,000-word essay</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Copies of two newspapers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532004/original/file-20230614-22-d0iwj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532004/original/file-20230614-22-d0iwj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532004/original/file-20230614-22-d0iwj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532004/original/file-20230614-22-d0iwj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532004/original/file-20230614-22-d0iwj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532004/original/file-20230614-22-d0iwj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532004/original/file-20230614-22-d0iwj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Washington Post published the Unabomber’s 35,000-word manifesto on Sept. 19, 1995.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-the-front-pages-of-the-new-york-times-and-the-news-photo/106884096?adppopup=true">Luke Frazza/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>FBI forensic linguist <a href="https://www.jamesrfitzgerald.com">James Fitzgerald</a> and sociolinguist <a href="http://www.rogershuy.com">Roger Shuy</a> were able to uncover several clues about the terrorist’s identity based on the manifesto and his other writings.</p>
<p>For example, the Unabomber used strange misspellings for some words, such as “wilfully” for “willfully,” and “clew” for “clue.” Shuy recognized these as <a href="http://www.rogershuy.com/pdf/Linguistic_Profiling.pdf">spelling reforms</a> that had been championed by <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-per-flash-simplespelling-0229-20120129-story.html">The Chicago Tribune</a> during the 1940s and 1950s, although they were never widely adopted.</p>
<p>Their use by the bomber suggested he might have spent his formative years in or near Chicago.</p>
<p>Fitzgerald noted the use of terms like “broad,” “chick” and “negro” in the manifesto was consistent with the vocabulary a middle-aged person from that era.</p>
<p>The Unabomber also referred to “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1ib-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA203&dq=20.+Roger+W.+Shuy,+The+Language+of+Murder+Cases:+Intentionality,+Predisposition,+and+Voluntariness+(Oxford:+Oxford+University+Press,+2014).&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivhfXiqMH_AhVojYkEHbsSBVoQ6AF6BAgJEAI#v=snippet&q=raising%20children&f=false">rearing children</a>” as opposed to “raising children.” The former term is characteristic of the northern U.S. dialect and would be consistent with someone who grew up in or near the Windy City.</p>
<p>The manifesto also contains such fairly esoteric terms as “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anomic">anomic</a>” and “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chimerical">chimerical</a>,” suggesting that its author was highly educated.</p>
<h2>A brother’s suspicions</h2>
<p>But the move to publish the manifesto ended up being the decisive factor.</p>
<p>It was read in Schenectady, New York, by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/us/suspect-s-trail-family-brother-who-tipped-off-authorities-leads-quiet-simple.html">Linda Patrik</a>, who showed it to her husband, David Kaczynski. She asked if he thought it sounded like something his brother Ted could have written.</p>
<p>David was initially skeptical. Then he noticed that the essay contained unusual expressions, like “cool-headed logicians,” that he remembered his estranged sibling making use of. He <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/09/IHT-a-nagging-feeling-by-family-member-pointed-to-unabomber-suspect.html">approached the FBI</a> with his suspicions, and it was noted that David’s brother had been born in Chicago in 1942.</p>
<p>A search of Kaczynski’s cabin turned up explosive devices, as well as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/13/us/bomber-manifesto-amid-items-found-law-officials-say.html">original copy</a> of the manifesto. Kaczynski <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/23/us/unabomber-case-overview-kaczynski-avoids-death-sentence-with-guilty-plea.html">pleaded guilty</a> in 1998 and was incarcerated until his death at age 81.</p>
<h2>Fingerprinting authors</h2>
<p>The Unabomber investigation has been justifiably hailed as a triumph of forensic linguistics. But sleuths of prose and punctuation have had other notable victories. </p>
<p>Even something as seemingly trivial as unusual punctuation can provide clues to a suspect’s identity – which is what happened in 2018, when a forensic linguist was able to pin a murder on a British man <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6028507/Forensic-linguist-reveals-murderer-snared-sending-texts-commas.htm">because of his unusual use of commas and spacing</a> when sending text messages.</p>
<p>Similar techniques have been used by language experts to identify authors. In 1996, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/4166/primary-colors-by-anonymous/">Primary Colors</a>,” a novel based on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, was published by “anonymous.” English professor Donald Foster was able to finger Newsweek columnist Joe Klein as the author of the work, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-02-16-1996047127-story.html">noting similarities</a> between the text of “Primary Colors” and Klein’s other published work, which included the use of unusual adverbs (“goofily”), states described as modes (“crisis mode”) and drawn-out interjections (“naww”).</p>
<p>And in 2013, “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” a novel authored with the pen name <a href="https://robert-galbraith.com/stories/the-cuckoos-calling/">Robert Galbraith</a>, was exposed as having been written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-name-game-jk-rowling-and-a-history-of-pseudonyms-16150">J.K. Rowling</a>. <a href="https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5315">Patrick Juola</a>, a computer scientist, and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-23313074">Peter Millican</a>, a philosopher, independently identified the author of the Harry Potter series as the crime novel’s true author. Both men used computer programs to analyze such factors as the distribution of word lengths and common word usage in books written by several suspected authors. They then compared the results to “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and identified Rowling as the closest match.</p>
<h2>An infallible method?</h2>
<p>These techniques seem almost magical when they work. But <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/07/23/words-on-trial">they’re not foolproof</a>.</p>
<p>In 2018, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html">published an op-ed</a> written by an anonymous “resister” inside the Trump administration. However, the editorial was too short for linguistic analysis.</p>
<p>Even after the resister published a full-length book, titled “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/books/review/a-warning-anonymous-book-review-trump.html">A Warning</a>,” it wasn’t possible to identify the author. He eventually outed himself as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/politics/miles-taylor-anonymous-trump.html">Miles Taylor</a>. He had served as the chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security. But because he had never published anything else, there was no text to which “A Warning” could be compared.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man in suit jacket poses with folded arms." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532021/original/file-20230614-31-4yi2ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532021/original/file-20230614-31-4yi2ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532021/original/file-20230614-31-4yi2ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532021/original/file-20230614-31-4yi2ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532021/original/file-20230614-31-4yi2ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532021/original/file-20230614-31-4yi2ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532021/original/file-20230614-31-4yi2ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The public learned of Miles Taylor’s identity only after he revealed himself as the author of ‘A Warning.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/miles-taylor-who-has-recently-revealed-himself-as-the-news-photo/1229883086?adppopup=true">Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And scholars are still debating the identity of <a href="https://elenaferrante.com">Elena Ferrante</a>, the pseudonym used by a bestselling Italian novelist. Ferrante has published a dozen books, including “My Brilliant Friend,” <a href="https://lithub.com/have-italian-scholars-figured-out-the-identity-of-elena-ferrante/">but the author’s true identity remains controversial</a>. </p>
<p>Either way, technological advances have made it increasingly difficult for people who leave a paper trail to hide their identities – and the old adage to “not put anything in writing” is as true as it’s ever been.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207681/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger J. Kreuz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Similar techniques used to identify criminals have been employed to unmask anonymous authors. But they aren’t foolproof.Roger J. Kreuz, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2000712023-02-28T13:25:59Z2023-02-28T13:25:59Z30 years later, Waco siege still resonates – especially among anti-government extremists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512535/original/file-20230227-28-5rajlm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C8%2C1784%2C1184&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fire engulfs the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1993.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TVWaco/995b0b87ac274bc380c3d0f5d998b80e/photo?Query=(renditions.phototype:horizontal)%20AND%20%20(waco%20texas)%20&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=&totalCount=234&currentItemNo=43">AP Photo/Ron Heflin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It may feel as though the 2024 presidential race has been underway ever since the last election ended, but Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article273373090.html">first official rally</a> for his third bid at the White House is scheduled to take place March 25, 2023, in what his campaign describes as “Trump Country”: Texas.</p>
<p>His choice of city, though, has drawn attention from experts on extremism. Trump’s event will be held in Waco, amid the 30-year anniversary of the infamous Waco tragedy, a confrontation between the Branch Davidians and federal law enforcement that led to significant loss of life. <a href="https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2023/01/25/1151283229/30-years-after-the-siege-waco-examines-what-led-to-the-catastrophe/">Around 80 members of the religious community</a> and <a href="https://www.atf.gov/our-history/remembering-waco">four federal agents</a> lost their lives in the weekslong siege.</p>
<p>Part of the event’s legacy in popular culture is tied to the sensationalist way <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/04/us/growing-up-under-koresh-cult-children-tell-of-abuses.html">the Branch Davidians</a> were portrayed in the media. But the tragedy is also a powerful moment in political extremist groups’ ideologies and highlights some themes that Trump has emphasized in the past: the idea of <a href="https://theconversation.com/january-6-us-capitol-attack-deep-state-conspiracies-havent-gone-away-194948">a tyrannical “deep state</a>,” fears of government overreach and <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/27/donald-trump-nra-houston/">opposition to gun control</a>. <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/sociology/jipson_arthur_j.php">As scholars</a> of <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/sociology/becker_paul_j.php">domestic extremism</a>, we have repeatedly seen how what happened at the Mount Carmel Center has been used by anti-government groups from the 1990s to today.</p>
<h2>51 days on edge</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-branch-davidians-of-waco-9780199245741?cc=us&lang=en&">Branch Davidians</a>, who believe that the apocalypse is imminent in their lifetime, <a href="https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/davidians-and-branch-davidians">are a splinter group of the Seventh-day Adventist Church</a>. Davidians believe that <a href="https://www.apologeticsindex.org/pdf/history.pdf">living prophets</a> are given divine gifts of interpretation to lead the members of the church into preparation for the last days. David Koresh, a young man who had taken charge of the small group, claimed to be the final prophet before the end times.</p>
<p>Suspecting that the group was illegally <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/15/us/cult-had-illegal-arms-expert-says.html">stockpiling weapons</a>, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms – also known as the ATF – attempted to execute a search warrant at the Mount Caramel Center on Feb. 28, 1993. They hoped to arrest Koresh on suspicion of weapons violations and allegations of <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-07-20-9507200155-story.html">child abuse</a>.</p>
<p>A gunfight ensued that killed four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians, leading to <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2018/02/27/51-days-under-siege-a-timeline-of-the-branch-davidian-standoff/">a 51-day siege</a>. Law enforcement isolated the compound from the outside world, and attempts at negotiation failed.</p>
<p>On April 19, in an effort to end the siege, the FBI used tear gas to try to force members out of the compound. A massive fire broke out, and by the end, <a href="https://www.8newsnow.com/news/national-news/28-years-ago-today-76-men-women-and-children-died-in-branch-davidian-compound-fire/">another 76 Branch Davidians had died, including 25 children</a>. Some of the victims had died of gunshots.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512324/original/file-20230227-2816-p21pnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People search amid the remains of a burned building, with a school bus parked nearby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512324/original/file-20230227-2816-p21pnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512324/original/file-20230227-2816-p21pnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512324/original/file-20230227-2816-p21pnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512324/original/file-20230227-2816-p21pnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512324/original/file-20230227-2816-p21pnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512324/original/file-20230227-2816-p21pnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512324/original/file-20230227-2816-p21pnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Texas investigators search the rubble of the burned-out compound and mark body locations with small flags on April 22, 1993.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/texas-department-of-safety-investigators-and-medical-news-photo/176613642?phrase=waco%20davidian&adppopup=true">J. David Ake/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Early questions</h2>
<p>Many Americans had watched news coverage of the siege for weeks and were horrified at the loss of life during a government operation. What had happened that last day of the siege, particularly the origins of the fire, was <a href="https://www.cato.org/commentary/fanning-flames-waco">highly contested</a> from the start.</p>
<p>In response to criticism of the federal government, leaders such as then-President Bill Clinton emphasized Koresh’s responsibility for the siege’s outcome. Attorney General Janet Reno, who had approved the FBI’s assault, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcWOu52rTTk">had no responsibility</a> in the deaths because “some religious fanatics murdered themselves,” Clinton said in a news conference.</p>
<p>In 2000, the Department of Justice released a report headed by former Missouri Sen. John Danforth that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/22/us/a-special-counsel-finds-government-faultless-at-waco.html?searchResultPosition=7">cleared the government of wrongdoing</a>. Investigators had acknowledged that the FBI used <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/sept99/waco4.htm">incendiary tear gas canisters</a> but concluded that the Branch Davidians themselves started the fire. This argument was tied to the Branch Davidians’ beliefs and the idea that some may have wanted to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/publications/waco/evaluation-handling-branch-davidian-stand-waco-texas-february-28-april-19-1993#A2">fulfill Koresh’s prophecies</a> about the apocalypse.</p>
<h2>Extremist legacy</h2>
<p>However, critics dismissed the report as essentially a cover-up, and some extremists believed that federal law enforcement had <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/170283/right-got-waco-wrong-kevin-cook-book-review">deliberately murdered Branch Davidians</a>.</p>
<p>This fear fed into existing conspiracy theories about a “<a href="https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/new-world-order-historical-origins-dangerous">New World Order</a>”: an <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/antigovernment">extremist belief</a> that the federal government plans to destroy personal liberty and eventually <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/stevens-gun-control-and-the-new-world-order/article_4294109a-e267-11ec-aced-4b8f396c90e4.html">confiscate firearms</a> before merging the United States with a global government.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, for example, conspiracy theorist, author and short-wave radio host <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/150922/pioneer-paranoia">William Cooper</a> <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-crazy-plan-to-rebuild-waco-compound-gave-us-alex-jones">regularly warned</a> his readers and listeners of an eventual “<a href="https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/local/arizona-investigations/2020/10/01/behold-pale-horse-how-william-cooper-planted-seeds-qanon-theory/3488115001/">One-World Government</a>.”</p>
<p>Shortly after the Waco tragedy, attorney and militia member Linda D. Thompson began to widely <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktubTy_6SVU">disseminate a video</a> called “Waco: The Big Lie,” through right-wing talk radio and conspiracy theorists. The video aims to convince viewers that there was a concerted effort to kill residents at the compound, and it became a powerful tool among extremists. Around the same time, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEroyX8jqrI">unorganized militia movements</a> <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/militia-movement-2020">took off</a>, calling for community defense and strong Second Amendment rights to defend against an encroaching <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-04-27-1995117026-story.html">federal government</a>.</p>
<p>Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols carried out the Oklahoma City Bombing on the second anniversary of the Waco fire and cited the siege as justification for <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OK026">their attack</a>, which killed 168 people. <a href="https://thespectator.com/topic/waco-wrought-branch-davidians/">McVeigh had even worn a T-shirt that said “FBI – Federal Bureau of Incineration”</a> before the bombing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512326/original/file-20230227-2321-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The facade of a partially destroyed, multi-story building on a city block." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512326/original/file-20230227-2321-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512326/original/file-20230227-2321-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512326/original/file-20230227-2321-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512326/original/file-20230227-2321-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512326/original/file-20230227-2321-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512326/original/file-20230227-2321-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512326/original/file-20230227-2321-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/terrorist-bomb-attack-on-oklahoma-building-news-photo/539740470?phrase=oklahoma%20city%20bombing&adppopup=true">Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another conspiracy theorist who fixated on Waco is Alex Jones, the creator and host of the Infowars website. Today, he is most widely known for claiming that the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was a <a href="https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=fc53c49d-90f4-43bd-a402-c32c0aa996d1&appid=1165&fbclid=IwAR2TehC2sd2pwixKTUrpWPn6vF8SqxY02igN0ESMin4VpLuBVEGgpNpqb04">government hoax</a> performed by actors, part of a conspiracy to confiscate firearms. But he <a href="https://observer.com/2019/04/alex-jones-austin-public-access-tv-origin-story/">launched his programs</a> in the 1990s and has often discussed Waco as an example of the evils of the federal government. In 2000, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-crazy-plan-to-rebuild-waco-compound-gave-us-alex-jones">on the seventh anniversary</a> of what he called “the Waco holocaust,” <a href="https://thespectator.com/topic/waco-wrought-branch-davidians/">Jones welcomed visitors</a> to a brand new Branch Davidian church on the site in Texas and later created a video about the siege.</p>
<h2>Extremists and Waco today</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512325/original/file-20230227-4732-nrgfca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A huge screen shows an image of men in orange hats in front of the U.S. Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512325/original/file-20230227-4732-nrgfca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512325/original/file-20230227-4732-nrgfca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512325/original/file-20230227-4732-nrgfca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512325/original/file-20230227-4732-nrgfca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512325/original/file-20230227-4732-nrgfca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512325/original/file-20230227-4732-nrgfca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512325/original/file-20230227-4732-nrgfca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A video shown during a House Select Committee hearing to investigate the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/video-showing-proud-boys-members-appear-on-screen-during-a-news-photo/1241209865?phrase=proud%20boys&adppopup=true">Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Waco continues to be a rallying cry for extremism today. To cite one example, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-secret-history-of-gavin-mcinnes">Gavin McInnes</a>, the founder of the Proud Boys, has <a href="https://censored.tv/">discussed government actions like the Waco siege</a> as an example of government corruption and to accuse it of attacking people of faith whose politics it opposes. A former member has testified that the Proud Boys’ participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was driven by <a href="https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/political-news/ap-politics/ap-proud-boys-expecting-civil-war-before-jan-6-witness-says/">belief in a civil war</a> pitting the federal government against citizens, patriots and nationalists.</p>
<p>What <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10511250100086211">unites many of the groups</a> influenced by Waco is a belief that the federal government is tyrannical and willing to attack citizens while depriving them of liberty, freedom and firearms. <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/post-september-11th-era-interpretations-security-and-civil">The perception</a> of a lack of consequences for the deaths at Waco is perceived, in and of itself, as proof of <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/pushed-extremes-domestic-terrorism-amid-polarization-and-protest">extremist beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>On the three-decade anniversary, as Americans reflect on the Waco tragedy, we believe it is important to remember the unfortunate loss of life – and to <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_PIRUS_UseOfSocialMediaByUSExtremists_ResearchBrief_July2018.pdf">be vigilant</a> against demagoguery. </p>
<p><em>This article was updated March 24, 2023 with information about the Trump rally.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Art Jipson receives funding from The Department of Homeland Security as part of a research team for the project: "Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio (PREVENTS-OH)."</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul J. Becker receives funding from The Department of Homeland Security as part of a research team for the project: "Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio (PREVENTS-OH)." </span></em></p>Waco has been used as a rallying cry for decades, two scholars of domestic extremism explain.Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of DaytonPaul J. Becker, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1958982023-01-09T18:41:38Z2023-01-09T18:41:38ZTwo years after the defund the police movement, police budgets increase across Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503298/original/file-20230105-18-om6zv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3589%2C2629&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman carries an umbrella outside a protest to defund the police in front of Toronto Police Service headquarters in July 2020. Police budgets have increased, not decreased, since then. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/two-years-after-the-defund-the-police-movement--police-budgets-increase-across-canada" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/15/defund-police-movement-us-victories-what-next">worldwide protests against police racism and violence in the summer of 2020</a> brought greater public attention to police spending. </p>
<p>In city after city, activists and other residents demanded that governments defund the police and reinvest in communities. Public support for this demand was evident in the streets, as well as in public opinion polls that registered <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-and-polls/Canadians-Divided-On-Whether-To-Defund-Police">significant support for defunding the police</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thin-skinned-blue-line-police-fight-against-defunding-showing-their-true-colours-183784">Thin-skinned blue line: Police fight against defunding, showing their true colours</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite that support, the demand to defund the police and reinvest in communities has not been implemented in any Canadian city. </p>
<p>In fact, my research shows police budgets have continued to increase in all major cities. A proposal to increase Toronto’s police budget by nearly $50 million, for example, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-police-board-budget-review-1.6707656">has been passed unanimously by the force’s board.</a></p>
<p>There are, however, big differences in the ways cities have addressed spending on policing since 2020, and there are small signs of change that could be built upon in the future.</p>
<h2>Policing spending before and after 2020</h2>
<p>As the illustration below shows, police spending in Canada increased both before and after the 2020 protests. No city, in other words, defunded their police. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph below lists police spending before and after 2020." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503334/original/file-20230105-22-7azblc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503334/original/file-20230105-22-7azblc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503334/original/file-20230105-22-7azblc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503334/original/file-20230105-22-7azblc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503334/original/file-20230105-22-7azblc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503334/original/file-20230105-22-7azblc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503334/original/file-20230105-22-7azblc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A graph shows police spending before and after 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are differences, however, in the amount of the budget increases. Some cities increased police spending at roughly the same rate before and after 2020. Ottawa, Calgary, Durham Region, York Region, Vancouver and Winnipeg fall into this category. </p>
<p>The protests, it seems, had little effect on these cities’ spending decisions. </p>
<p>Two cities, Toronto and Peel Region, increased policing spending at a much lower rate after the 2020 protests. The change is particularly apparent in the case of Toronto, which increased police spending by 11.4 per cent in 2018-2020 and 2.3 per cent in 2020-2022. </p>
<p>Only one city moved in the opposite direction. Montréal, rather than either defunding the police or reducing the rate of budget increases, increased police spending at a much greater rate after 2020 — much more than in the earlier period and more than any other city in Canada. </p>
<h2>Unbudgeted police spending</h2>
<p>While public debates tend to focus on budgeted spending, there are sometimes important differences between police budgets and actual spending. Below, we see the difference between budgeted and actual police spending for the 10 police forces in 2017-2021. As we can see, half of the police forces spent slightly under their allocated budget, while the other half spent more than their budget.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph shows unbudgeted police spending." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503335/original/file-20230105-18-31gd4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503335/original/file-20230105-18-31gd4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503335/original/file-20230105-18-31gd4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503335/original/file-20230105-18-31gd4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503335/original/file-20230105-18-31gd4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503335/original/file-20230105-18-31gd4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503335/original/file-20230105-18-31gd4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A graph shows unbudgeted police spending.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As we can see, half of the police forces spent slightly under their allocated budget, while the other half spent more than their budget.</p>
<p>The major outlier, again, is Montréal. The city went over budget by an average of $29.7 million per year. No other police force came anywhere close to this level of overspending. Vancouver and Peel Region, the closest comparisons, overspent by an average of $2.45 million and $3 million, respectively.</p>
<p>One important source of police overspending is overtime, a normal part of police operations. In some cases, however, police forces incur significantly more overtime than budgeted. </p>
<p>As we can see above, most cities go over budget on overtime. Vancouver, Durham Region, and Ottawa go over budget by over 25 per cent each year, while Montréal more than doubles this rate of overspending. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A police officer is seen from behind outside a convention centre. Police is written on the back of his jacket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503293/original/file-20230105-16-9diaja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503293/original/file-20230105-16-9diaja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503293/original/file-20230105-16-9diaja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503293/original/file-20230105-16-9diaja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503293/original/file-20230105-16-9diaja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503293/original/file-20230105-16-9diaja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503293/original/file-20230105-16-9diaja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Montréal police patrol outside the fenced off perimeter of the city’s convention centre ahead of the COP15 UN conference on biodiversity in December 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We can also see, finally, that overtime does not always fully explain police overspending. In the case of Vancouver, Durham Region, Ottawa and Toronto, excess spending on overtime is greater than their overall excess spending. In these cases, then, overtime can be considered a significant reason for their pattern of overspending. </p>
<p>In the case of Montréal, however, excess overtime accounts for just over half of overall excess spending. If the city eliminated excess overtime spending, it would still exceed its overall budget by the largest amount of any Canadian police force.</p>
<h2>Broken promises and pathways forward</h2>
<p>In the midst of the 2020 protests, many elected officials promised to address longstanding problems of police violence and systemic racism. </p>
<p>In various ways, as <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/12/13/after-the-2020-protests-we-were-told-things-would-be-different-so-why-are-police-budgets-and-powers-still-expanding.html">Robyn Maynard, author of <em>Policing Black Lives</em>, explains</a>, they promised a “racial reckoning.” Political leaders, Maynard argues, “assured the public that they had heard the demands that drew tens of thousands into the streets for weeks and months.” </p>
<p>My research shows these promises were broken. Despite the protests and strong public support for defunding the police and reinvesting in communities, no such change has occurred in Canada. The promised “racial reckoning” has yet to occur.</p>
<p>It is worth taking notice, however, of the police forces that did implement smaller increases after 2020 and how they did so. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A police officer runs with his gun drawn. A police cruiser and Canadian flags are behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503296/original/file-20230105-20-j0nxbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=548%2C0%2C1954%2C1440&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503296/original/file-20230105-20-j0nxbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503296/original/file-20230105-20-j0nxbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503296/original/file-20230105-20-j0nxbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503296/original/file-20230105-20-j0nxbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503296/original/file-20230105-20-j0nxbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503296/original/file-20230105-20-j0nxbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Ottawa police officer runs with his weapon drawn in Ottawa in the midst of the Parliament Hill shootings in October 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Toronto, Calgary, and Edmonton all passed smaller police spending increases after 2020, while also channelling funding toward non-police emergency response teams. This involves alternative responses to emergency 911 calls of a social rather than criminal nature. </p>
<p>It’s no surprise to find that the cities that invested in non-police response teams were also the cities that passed the lowest police spending increases since 2020. The potential of non-police response teams to respond to certain categories of emergency calls is enormous. </p>
<h2>Emergency calls diverted</h2>
<p>The city of Seattle found that <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21018129/idt-report-on-reimagining-policing-and-community-safety-in-seattle.pdf">50 to 80 per cent of 911 calls</a> could be diverted to a non-police team, while Canadian police forces have suggested that <a href="https://www.edmonton.ca/public-files/assets/document?path=PDF/SaferForAll-CSWBTaskForce-Report-March30_2021.pdf">between 32 per cent</a> <a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/montreal/772079/fady-dagher-promet-un-equilibre-entre-la-repression-et-la-prevention">and 80 per cent</a> of calls could be so diverted. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large crowd of people, some carrying Black Lives Matter signs, approach a line of police officers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503295/original/file-20230105-24-lndl6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503295/original/file-20230105-24-lndl6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503295/original/file-20230105-24-lndl6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503295/original/file-20230105-24-lndl6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503295/original/file-20230105-24-lndl6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503295/original/file-20230105-24-lndl6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503295/original/file-20230105-24-lndl6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this July 2020 photo, police clash with Black Lives Matter protesters in Seattle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other pathways, however, need to be pursued as well. It’s not enough, for example, to respond better to emergency calls pertaining to social issues. The social issues themselves need to be addressed beyond and before any emergency call.</p>
<p>Reinvesting in communities means investing in social housing, mental health care, safe drug consumption sites and other forms of harm reduction. Because these interventions reduce the need for police work, there is a clear case for redirecting police funding toward them. </p>
<p>As cities across Canada evaluate budget priorities for 2023, the broken promises of the last two years and tiny steps toward a different future need to be part of the discussion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Rutland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows police budgets have continued to increase in all major Canadian cities in the aftermath of the defund the police movement.Ted Rutland, Associate professor, Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1966992022-12-16T13:14:32Z2022-12-16T13:14:32ZVideo of college student arrest raises questions about use of police on campus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501431/original/file-20221215-11129-cz7dtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C9%2C2994%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students of color report negative encounters with campus police.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/retro-campus-security-royalty-free-image/485632753?phrase=police%20college&adppopup=true">mrdoomits via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>When a <a href="https://www.wxii12.com/article/wssu-responds-video-showing-officers-removing-student-classroom/42248265">video emerged</a> of a 20-year-old Black student being arrested at Winston-Salem State University on Dec. 14, 2022, after she got into a verbal argument with her professor, it brought renewed attention to the often controversial role of campus police. Here, Jarell Skinner-Roy, a University of Michigan doctoral student who is examining how students of color view police and surveillance on college and university campuses, breaks down the significance of the episode at the historically Black college in North Carolina.</em></p>
<h2>What does this video prove?</h2>
<p>For me, this is additional evidence of how colleges and universities often function as an extension of what some scholars refer to as the “<a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7ab5f5c3fbca46c38f0b2496bcaa5ab0">carceral state</a>.” That includes penal institutions, but it also involves people’s views on when law enforcement should get involved in disputes and altercations.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814776162/race-ethnicity-and-policing/">wide body of research</a> has already found that people of color are disproportionately affected by the carceral state. My <a href="https://aera22-aera.ipostersessions.com/?s=75-52-58-6F-E5-1E-86-4D-87-10-09-08-63-32-F7-81">preliminary research</a> is beginning to show that this also holds true in higher education.</p>
<p>To me, this incident is also an example of how colleges and universities weaponize police against students. In this case, a university staff member – who was <a href="https://www.wxii12.com/article/wssu-responds-video-showing-officers-removing-student-classroom/42248265">not involved</a> in the dispute – decided to call campus law enforcement on this Black student. Other students in the video can be heard saying that the student did not start the argument.</p>
<p>Elwood L. Robinson, the chancellor at Winston-Salem State University, <a href="https://www.wssu.edu/about/news/articles/2022/12/a-letter-from-chancellor-robinson.html">denied</a> that this incident is a case of police being weaponized against students. In the video, the student is shown being handcuffed by police as she questions why police were called. </p>
<p>In my view, there were other more productive and safer ways to handle this verbal disagreement between a professor and a student. Yet, in this case, <a href="https://www.wxii12.com/article/wssu-responds-video-showing-officers-removing-student-classroom/42248265">university officials have defended</a> the decision to call campus police.</p>
<p>“In accordance with law enforcement procedures, our officer’s first priority is to assess the situation and provide every opportunity for a positive resolution,” Robinson said. “As situations escalate, their responsibility is to ensure the safety of the students, faculty and staff members that are present.”</p>
<p>The chancellor denied that the incident was a case of police being weaponized.</p>
<p>“We understand that the weaponization of police is a prevalent problem in our community,” Robinson said. “However, that is not what happened in this incident.”</p>
<h2>Why is this problematic?</h2>
<p>When <a href="https://activisthistory.com/2019/11/19/race-and-policing-in-higher-education/">colleges and universities are so intimately tied with the carceral state</a> through their partnerships with police departments as well as their own law enforcement agencies, punishment will always take precedence over safety. In this case, this student is now <a href="https://www.complex.com/life/winston-salem-state-university-student-arrested-in-class">facing criminal charges</a> for misdemeanor disorderly conduct.</p>
<p>This theme of prioritizing punishment over safety directly aligns with the preliminary findings of my ongoing research on campus policing with the <a href="https://www.campusabolition.org/">Campus Abolition Research Lab</a> at the University of Michigan. In interviews I did with 40 students in focus groups earlier in 2022, one preliminary finding is students of color often report having had negative experiences with campus police. They also report being unfairly monitored and reprimanded and therefore do not feel safe around them.</p>
<h2>Is this a one-time thing or systemic and widespread?</h2>
<p>I believe it’s important not to see these incidents as unfortunate yet isolated cases. In reality, there have been many documented incidents of colleges and universities weaponizing police against their students. Some recent and notable examples include a Georgia State University officer <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/04/04/professor-calls-police-two-tardy-black-students">removing two Black students from their classroom</a> for being tardy earlier this year, several campus police officers at Barnard College <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/15/barnard-suspends-police-officers-after-incident-black-student">restraining a Black student</a> who was trying to enter the campus library, and a Yale police officer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/opinion/charles-blow-at-yale-the-police-detained-my-son.html">holding at Black student at gunpoint</a> who was just walking home from the library in 2015.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there have been many tragic incidents of campus law enforcement killing students on campus, including at <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-dec-09-la-me-student-slaying-20121210-story.html">Cal State San Bernardino in 2012</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/us/georgia-tech-killing-student.html">Georgia Tech in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>Colleges and universities have a long tradition of weaponizing police or even soldiers against their students, especially as a means of quelling student protests, as was the case in the deadly shootings at <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/kent-state-shooting">Kent State University</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126426361">Jackson State University</a> in 1970.</p>
<h2>What can colleges do?</h2>
<p>First, I believe institutions must examine their current policies and practices regarding campus safety, policing, surveillance and student discipline through an <a href="https://abolitionistfutures.com/full-reading-list">abolitionist view</a>, which envisions other ways to repair harms instead of relying on police or penal institutions.</p>
<p>Relatedly, the experiences and voices of students — especially racially marginalized students — must be heard and prioritized in this review of campus safety policies and practices. Students from all over the country <a href="https://www.higheredtoday.org/2016/01/13/what-are-students-demanding/">have demanded</a> reforms to policing on campus, such as reallocating resources away from campus police departments or having campus police not be armed. If institutional leaders were serious about making changes, they would make sure to hear and learn from those who are most affected by these policies.</p>
<p>Lastly, I believe higher education must begin to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/02/heels-george-floyd-killing-colleges-have-moral-imperative-not-work-local-police">redirect funding for campus police</a> toward other programs and services that keep students healthy and safe, such as mental health services or organizations that push for alternatives to police and prisons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jarell Skinner-Roy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Arrest of student who got in dispute with professor raises questions about the role of campus police.Jarell Skinner-Roy, Doctoral Student in Higher Education, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1938952022-11-04T17:24:28Z2022-11-04T17:24:28ZFacial recognition: why we shouldn’t ban the police from using it altogether<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493503/original/file-20221104-14-6bf1nw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">100% accurate?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/face-recognition-technology-concept-illustration-big-1745290397">varuna</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK police are being accused of breaking ethical standards by using live facial recognition technology to help fight crime. <a href="https://www.mctd.ac.uk/join-calls-to-ban-police-use-of-facial-recognition-says-minderoo-centre-researchers/">A recent report</a> by the University of Cambridge into trials of the technology by forces in London and south Wales was particularly concerned about the “lack of robust redress” for anyone suffering harm. It spoke of the need to “protect human rights and improve accountability” before facial recognition is used more widely. </p>
<p>The Cambridge team wants a broad ban on police using the technology, and they are not alone. UK civil liberties group Big Brother Watch has been running a “<a href="https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/stop-facial-recognition/">stop facial recognition</a>” campaign as the government mulls how to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sets-out-proposals-for-new-ai-rulebook-to-unleash-innovation-and-boost-public-trust-in-the-technology">regulate AI technologies</a>. Meanwhile, 12 NGOs <a href="https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/CZ-Minister-Digitalisation-letter-AI-act.pdf">recently called on</a> EU legislators to completely ban it, along with various other forms of biometric identification, in their upcoming <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:e0649735-a372-11eb-9585-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF">AI Act</a>. </p>
<p>Simply banning this technology would be a mistake, however. In my view, there’s a good case for a more measured approach. </p>
<h2>Growing police use</h2>
<p>The police forces in London and south Wales appear to be the only two in the UK currently using live facial recognition, which uses <a href="https://ico.org.uk/media/2619985/ico-opinion-the-use-of-lfr-in-public-places-20210618.pdf">artificial intelligence software</a> to compare an individual’s digital facial image with an existing facial image to estimate similarity. Manchester Police trialled it but were <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1031939/manchester-news-police-surveillance-technology-trafford-centre-manchester">forced to pause</a> by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/surveillance-camera-commissioner">surveillance camera commissioner</a> in 2018 for not obtaining the necessary approvals. </p>
<p>In 2020 an appellate court also <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/R-Bridges-v-CC-South-Wales-ors-Judgment.pdf">ruled against</a> south Wales’ use of the technology, concluding the force’s legal framework for deployment effectively gave them unlimited discretion to do so. It made no difference to the court that the police had notified the public (known as overt operational deployment).</p>
<p>Despite this ruling, facial recognition can still broadly be used by police, although numerous <a href="https://www.psni.police.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/02158%20Facial%20Recognition%20Technology.pdf">other forces</a> have said <a href="https://www.gmp.police.uk/foi-ai/greater-manchester-police/disclosure-2019/april/gsa-45619/">they are not</a> doing so at present. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493451/original/file-20221104-11-ngyqww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman on phone while numerous people behind her are being scanned by facial recognition technology" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493451/original/file-20221104-11-ngyqww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493451/original/file-20221104-11-ngyqww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493451/original/file-20221104-11-ngyqww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493451/original/file-20221104-11-ngyqww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493451/original/file-20221104-11-ngyqww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493451/original/file-20221104-11-ngyqww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493451/original/file-20221104-11-ngyqww.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Any UK police force can use facial recognition under the current legal framework.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/facial-recognition-search-surveillance-person-modern-1481376347">Trismegist San</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The London Metropolitan Police increasingly use facial recognition to locate missing persons, suspects, <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/advice/lfr/policy-documents/lfr-sop.pdf">witnesses</a> and victims. They have scanned individuals’ faces in city squares and at public events, using a <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/R-Bridges-v-CC-South-Wales-ors-Judgment.pdf">facial recognition camera</a> typically placed on a police vehicle or street pole. The <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/advice/lfr/policy-documents/lfr-sop.pdf">public are alerted</a> to the deployment through notices as they enter the recognition zone – unless that compromises policing tactics or deployment is urgent. </p>
<p>Between February 2020 and July 2022, the Met deployed the techology in eight locations including <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/advice/lfr/deployment-records/lfr-deployment-grid.pdf">Piccadilly Circus</a>. They <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/advice/lfr/deployment-records/lfr-deployment-grid.pdf">are estimated</a> to have viewed more than 150,000 faces, leading to nine arrests but also eight occasions where they targeted the wrong person.</p>
<h2>The pros and cons</h2>
<p>Facial recognition has evolved in recent years, for instance to work in real time, but inaccuracies and errors remain. In New Jersey, <a href="https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/288">228 wrongful arrests</a> were reportedly made using (non-real time) facial recognition between January 2019 and April 2021. One <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/29/tech/nijeer-parks-facial-recognition-police-arrest/index.html">black American</a> spent 11 days in jail after being wrongly identified. False identifications can also lead to everything from missed flights to distressing police interrogations. </p>
<p>Specific groups are disproportionately affected. <a href="https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2019/NIST.IR.8280.pdf#page=4">A 2019 US study</a> found that women are two-to-five times more likely to be falsely identified, while the risks are ten-to-100 times greater for black and Asian faces than white ones. Given that police already disproportionately <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/27/black-people-nine-times-more-likely-to-face-stop-and-search-than-white-people">stop and search</a> ethnic minorities, this shortcoming in the technology could potentially even be used to sustain such practices. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493452/original/file-20221104-11-ohcw3y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crowd in London protesting about police stop and search" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493452/original/file-20221104-11-ohcw3y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493452/original/file-20221104-11-ohcw3y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493452/original/file-20221104-11-ohcw3y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493452/original/file-20221104-11-ohcw3y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493452/original/file-20221104-11-ohcw3y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493452/original/file-20221104-11-ohcw3y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493452/original/file-20221104-11-ohcw3y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facial recognition is not necessarily part of the solution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-17th-april-2021-kill-bill-1957541050">BradleyStearn</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another risk is that police covertly install facial recognition cameras permanently. This could help the state to crack down on public protests, for example. There is already a pending <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/08/moscows-use-facial-recognition-technology-challenged">legal challenge against Russia</a> before the European Court of Human Rights over such practices, and fear of state surveillance is one reason why many want this technology banned. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, facial recognition has its benefits. <a href="https://www.securityindustry.org/2020/07/16/facial-recognition-success-stories-showcase-positive-use-cases-of-the-technology/">It can help</a> police to find serious criminals, including terrorists, not to mention <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-crime-children-idUSKBN2081CU">missing children</a> and people at risk of harming themselves or others. </p>
<p>Like it or not, we also live under colossal corporate surveillance capitalism already. The <a href="https://papltd.co.uk/top-10-countries-and-cities-by-number-of-cctv-cameras/">UK and US</a> have among the most installed CCTV cameras in the world. London residents are filmed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/02/how-cctv-played-a-vital-role-in-tracking-sarah-everard-and-her-killer">300 times</a> a day on average, and police can usually use the data without a search warrant. As if that wasn’t bad enough, big tech companies <a href="https://guardian.ng/features/what-does-big-tech-know-about-you/">know almost everything</a> personal about us. Worrying about live facial recognition is inconsistent with our tolerance of all this surveillance. </p>
<h2>A better approach</h2>
<p>Instead of an outright ban, even of covert facial recognition, I’m in favour of a statutory law to clarify when this technology can be deployed. For one thing, police in the UK can currently use it to track people on their watchlists, but this can include even those charged with minor crimes. There are also no uniform criteria for deciding who can be listed. </p>
<p>Under the EU’s <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:e0649735-a372-11eb-9585-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF">proposed law</a>, facial recognition could only be deployed against those suspected of crimes carrying a maximum sentence of upwards of three years. That would appear to be a reasonable cut-off. </p>
<p>Secondly, a court or similar independent body should always have to authorise deployment, including assessing whether it would be proportionate to the police objective in question. In the Met, authorisation currently has to come from a police officer ranked <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/advice/lfr/policy-documents/lfr-sop.pdf">superintendent or higher</a>, and <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/advice/lfr/policy-documents/lfr-sop.pdf">they do</a> have to <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/advice/lfr/policy-documents/lfr-policy-document.pdf">make a call</a> on proportionality – but this should not be a police decision.</p>
<p>We also need clear, auditable ethical standards for what happens during and after the technology is deployed. Images of wrongly identified people should be deleted immediately, for instance. Unfortunately, Met policy on this is unclear at present. The Met is trying to use the technology responsibly in other respects, but this is not enough in itself. </p>
<p>Last but not least, the <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2021/05/14/researchers-call-bias-free-artificial-intelligence/">potential for discrimination</a> should be tackled by legally requiring developers to train the AI on a diverse enough range of communities to meet a minimum threshold. This sort of framework should allow society to enjoy the benefits of live facial recognition without the harms. Simply banning something that requires a delicate balancing of competing interests is the wrong move entirely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asress Adimi Gikay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Civil liberties groups in the UK and elsewhere want to stop the police from using this technology altogether, but that’s going too far.Asress Adimi Gikay, Senior Lecturer in AI, Disruptive Innovation and Law, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1899442022-10-17T12:31:33Z2022-10-17T12:31:33ZWhat is Fog Reveal? A legal scholar explains the app some police forces are using to track people without a warrant<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489290/original/file-20221011-20-y3vdkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4031%2C2999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Rockingham County Sheriff's Department in Wentworth, N.C., is among the law enforcement agencies the AP found using the Fog Reveal location tracking tool.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Investigation-Tracked-Fog-Reveal/45d5e3941cf24040a50d9e16e2b1efd2/photo">AP Photo/Allen G. Breed</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Government agencies and private security companies in the U.S. have found a cost-effective way to engage in warrantless <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-mass-surveillance-fog-reveal-tech-tool/">surveillance of individuals, groups and places</a>: a pay-for-access web tool called Fog Reveal. </p>
<p>The tool enables law enforcement officers to see “patterns of life” – where and when people work and live, with whom they associate and what places they visit. The tool’s maker, Fog Data Science, claims to have billions of data points from <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22187494-chino_2019-20_attachments#document/p25">over 250 million U.S. mobile devices</a>.</p>
<p>Fog Reveal came to light when the <a href="https://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> (EFF), a nonprofit that advocates for online civil liberties, was investigating location data brokers and uncovered the program through a Freedom of Information Act request. EFF’s <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/08/inside-fog-data-science-secretive-company-selling-mass-surveillance-local-police">investigation</a> found that Fog Reveal enables law enforcement and private companies to identify and track people and monitor specific places and events, like rallies, protests, places of worship and health care clinics. The Associated Press found that nearly two dozen government agencies across the country <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-police-government-surveillance-d395409ef5a8c6c3f6cdab5b1d0e27ef">have contracted with Fog Data Science to use the tool</a>.</p>
<p>Government use of Fog Reveal highlights a problematic difference between data privacy law and electronic surveillance law in the U.S. It is a difference that creates a sort of loophole, permitting enormous quantities of personal data to be collected, aggregated and used in ways that are not transparent to most persons. That difference is far more important in the wake of the Supreme Court’s <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392">Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization</a> decision, which revoked the constitutional right to an abortion. Dobbs puts the privacy of reproductive health information and related data points, including relevant location data, in significant jeopardy.</p>
<p>The trove of personal data Fog Data Science is selling, and government agencies are buying, exists because ever-advancing technologies in smart devices collect increasingly vast amounts of intimate data. Without meaningful choice or control on the user’s part, smart device and app makers collect, use and sell that data. It is a technological and legal dilemma that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/state-of-privacy-laws-in-us/">threatens individual privacy and liberty</a>, and it is a problem <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2905131">I have worked</a> on for years as a practicing lawyer, researcher and law professor.</p>
<h2>Government surveillance</h2>
<p>U.S. intelligence agencies have long used technology to engage in surveillance programs like <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/17/4517480/nsa-spying-prism-surveillance-cheat-sheet">PRISM</a>, collecting data about individuals from tech companies like Google, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/timeline-nsa-domestic-surveillance-bush-obama/">particularly since 9/11</a> – ostensibly for national security reasons. These programs typically are authorized by and subject to the <a href="https://bja.ojp.gov/program/it/privacy-civil-liberties/authorities/statutes/1286">Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm">Patriot Act</a>. While there is critical <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/surveillance-under-patriot-act">debate about the merits and abuses</a> of these laws and programs, they operate under a modicum of court and congressional oversight. </p>
<p>Domestic law enforcement agencies also use technology for surveillance, but generally with greater restrictions. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment">Fourth Amendment</a>, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, and federal electronic surveillance law require domestic law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before tracking someone’s location <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/10-1259">using a GPS device</a> or <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf">cell site location information</a>. </p>
<p>Fog Reveal is something else entirely. The tool – made possible by smart device technology and that difference between data privacy and electronic surveillance law protections – allows domestic law enforcement and private entities to buy access to compiled data about most U.S. mobile phones, including location data. It enables tracking and monitoring of people on a massive scale without court oversight or public transparency. The company has made few public comments, but details of its technology have come out through the referenced EFF and AP investigations.</p>
<h2>Fog Reveal’s data</h2>
<p>Every smartphone has an <a href="https://revealmobile.com/how-to-find-your-mobile-ad-id/">advertising ID</a> – a series of numbers that uniquely identifies the device. Supposedly, advertising IDs are anonymous and not linked directly to the subscriber’s name. In reality, that may not be the case.</p>
<p>Private companies and apps harness smartphones’ GPS capabilities, which provide detailed location data, and advertising IDs, so that wherever a smartphone goes and any time a user downloads an app or visits a website, it creates a trail. Fog Data Science <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-police-government-surveillance-d395409ef5a8c6c3f6cdab5b1d0e27ef">says it obtains this “commercially available data” from data brokers</a>, permitting the tool to follow devices through their advertising IDs. While these numbers do not contain the name of the phone’s user, they can easily be traced to homes and workplaces to help police identify the user and establish <a href="https://medium.com/the-state-and-future-of-geoint-2017-report/activity-based-intelligence-understanding-patterns-of-life-481c78b7d5ae">pattern-of-life analyses</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a screenshot showing a text box with a row of icons at the top over a satellite view of a neighborhood" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fog Reveal allows users to see that a specific mobile phone was at a specific place at a specific time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/08/inside-fog-data-science-secretive-company-selling-mass-surveillance-local-police">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Law enforcement use of Fog Reveal puts a spotlight on that loophole between U.S. data privacy law and electronic surveillance law. The hole is so large that – despite Supreme Court rulings requiring a warrant for law enforcement to use GPS and cell site data to track persons – it is not clear whether law enforcement use of Fog Reveal is unlawful.</p>
<h2>Electronic surveillance vs. data privacy</h2>
<p>Electronic surveillance law protections and data privacy mean two very different things in the U.S. There are robust federal electronic surveillance laws governing domestic surveillance. The <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-119">Electronic Communications Privacy Act</a> <a href="https://bja.ojp.gov/program/it/privacy-civil-liberties/authorities/statutes/1285#:%7E:text=Title%20I%20of%20the%20ECPA,prohibits%20the%20use%20of%20illegally">regulates when and how</a> domestic law enforcement and private entities can “wiretap,” i.e., intercept a person’s communications, or track a person’s location.</p>
<p>Coupled with Fourth Amendment protections, ECPA generally requires law enforcement agencies to get a warrant based on probable cause to intercept someone’s communications or track someone’s location using GPS and cell site location information. Also, ECPA permits an officer to get a warrant only when the officer is investigating certain crimes, so the law limits its own authority to permit surveillance of only serious crimes. Violation of ECPA is a crime.</p>
<p>The vast majority of states have laws that mirror ECPA, although some states, like Maryland, afford citizens more protections from unwanted surveillance.</p>
<p>The Fog Reveal tool raises enormous privacy and civil liberties concerns, yet what it is selling – the ability to track most persons at all times – may be permissible because <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/08/data-privacy-bill-would-give-you-more-control-over-info-collected-about-you/2/">the U.S. lacks a comprehensive federal data privacy law</a>. ECPA permits interceptions and electronic surveillance when a person consents to that surveillance. </p>
<p>With little in the way of federal data privacy laws, once someone clicks “I agree” on a pop-up box, there are few limitations on private entities’ collection, use and aggregation of user data, including location data. This is the loophole between data privacy and electronic surveillance law protections, and it creates the framework that underpins the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-015-0191-0">massive U.S. data sharing market</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xeyp-sEDGvk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">AP investigative journalist Garance Burke explains how she and her colleagues uncovered law enforcement use of Fog Reveal.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The need for data privacy law</h2>
<p>Without robust federal data privacy safeguards, smart device manufacturers, app makers and data brokers will continue, unfettered, to utilize smart devices’ sophisticated sensing technologies and GPS capabilities to collect and commercially aggregate vast quantities of intimate and revealing data. As it stands, that data trove may not be protected from law enforcement agencies. But the permitted commercial use of advertising IDs to track devices and users without meaningful notice and consent could change if the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-us-data-privacy-bill-aims-to-give-you-more-control-over-information-collected-about-you-and-make-businesses-change-how-they-handle-data-188279">American Data Privacy Protection Act</a>, approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce <a href="https://www.natlawreview.com/article/house-committee-passes-comprehensive-federal-privacy-legislation">by a vote of 53-2</a> on July 20, 2022, passes.</p>
<p>ADPPA’s future is uncertain. The app industry is strongly resisting any curtailment of its data collection practices, and some states are resisting ADPPA’s federal preemption provision, which could minimize the protections afforded via state data privacy laws. For example, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has said lawmakers will need to address concerns from California that the bill overrides the state’s stronger protections <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/9122">before she will call for a vote on ADPPA</a>.</p>
<p>The stakes are high. Recent law enforcement investigations highlight the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/10/facebook-user-data-abortion-nebraska-police">real-world consequences</a> that flow from the lack of robust data privacy protection. Given the Dobbs ruling, these situations will proliferate absent congressional action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Current member of IEEE-USA, serving on its AI Policy Committee, and Co-Chair of its Privacy, Equity, and Justice in AI Subcommittee.
Prior grant research work includes: funding from National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the National Initiatives in Cyber Education to develop an open access course, "Cyberlaw: Policy & Operations" since published nationwide by NSA; and funding from U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to analyze, via published legal memos, issues of privacy, Constitutional rights, and other legal issues in the use of UAVs (drones) by domestic law enforcement. </span></em></p>Some US law enforcement agencies are using a commercial app that tracks people all day long via their phones – without a court order or oversight.Anne Toomey McKenna, Visiting Professor of Law, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1922562022-10-13T14:20:17Z2022-10-13T14:20:17ZGhana’s artisanal miners are a law unto themselves: involving communities can help fix the problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489608/original/file-20221013-13-afbvcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of Galamseyer, illegal gold miners, work in Kibi area, southern Ghana.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cristina Aldehuela/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ghana is Africa’s <a href="https://www.financialnigeria.com/ghanaovertakes-south-africa-as-the-largest-producer-of-gold-in-africa-news-1850.html">largest gold producer</a>, the sixth globally. It produced approximately <a href="https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-production-by-country?gclid=CjwKCAjwu5yYBhAjEiwAKXk_eEasgkkYezIWYNqgKUK2LwMIMYFHAsOtRFzkYNZZpJ3R3NmG6VWkwxoC2rIQAvD_BwE">129 metric tonnes</a> in 2021. </p>
<p>Gold mining in Ghana stretches back over <a href="https://delvedatabase.org/data/countries/ghana">1000</a> years. It first served as a cultural heritage for decorating kings and queens from the Ashanti region. Gold also played an important role during the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/ghana-gold-mining-cocoa-environment">colonial era</a>. In the early half of the 1890s, it became an official trading commodity. Currently, gold contributes <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/415935/top-gold-mines-in-ghana-by-production-volume/">12%</a> to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product.</p>
<p>Over the years, a new form of mining known as artisanal and small-scale mining has emerged in Ghana and has become a source of revenue and income for poor people living in rural areas. But it’s dangerous for residents in mining areas and also to illegal mining operators. And operations continue to wreak havoc on the environment. Artisanal mining also affects farming, cocoa production, and freshwater fishing.</p>
<p>In the late 1980s, the Ghanaian government <a href="https://www.gna.org.gh/1.20875077">regularised</a> artisanal mining to allow citizens of 18 years and above to obtain licenses. Today, artisanal mining exists in two forms: licensed and unlicensed operations. Licensed artisanal mining is also known as small-scale mining, whereas in local parlance, unlicensed mining is called ‘galamsey’, to wit, gather-to-sell.</p>
<p>Artisanal and small-scale mining employs approximately 1 million people in Ghana. An additional 5 million peoples’ <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2019/07/15/ghana-illegal-asm-artisanal-mining/">livelihoods</a> depend on its proceeds.</p>
<p>Artisanal and small-scale mining also <a href="https://www.myjoyonline.com/small-scale-mining-contributes-40-of-ghanas-gold-produce-lets-address-it-tactfully-abu-jinapor/">accounts for 40%</a> of gold produced in Ghana, making it an attractive sector for revenue generation. </p>
<p>A major problem with unlicensed mining is government’s inability to enforce mining laws. About <a href="https://www.effective-states.org/beyond-the-resource-curse-the-political-economy-of-mining-and-inclusive-development-in-ghana/">85%</a> of artisanal and small-scale mining operators have no license to operate. This is because of the long hours it takes to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837720326090">process mining license applications</a>, and the exorbitant fees charged by the minerals and mining commission.</p>
<p>The difficulty with enforcing mining laws prompted <a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/1176446/exploring-the-potential-for-citizen-participatory.html">my research</a>. I set out to understand why past and present governments have been unable to enforce laws, and to consider solutions to the problem.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Artisanal and small-scale mining is attractive to an average Ghanaian for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>Firstly, artisanal and small-scale miners can generate an income averaging $3 daily (GHS30) versus farming’s $0.6 (GHS7). Mining income is double the daily minimum wage of GHS15. In the wake of high cost of living, people will choose mining.</p>
<p>Secondly, the increasing demand for gold has led to a <a href="https://www.miningweekly.com/article/artisanal-small-scale-mining-explodes-amid-rising-prices-2018-01-22/rep_id:3650">global price increase</a>. </p>
<p>Thirdly, artisanal and small-scale mining generates income all year round, whereas farming takes place three times a year in line with the country’s three rainy seasons. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, people living in artisanal and small-scale mining areas remain the poorest, with no access to education and good roads. In addition, artisanal and small-scale mining is the major driver of <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Galamsey-menace-A-national-security-concern-526492">environmental, safety and health</a> problems in most mining areas. </p>
<p>Between 2015 and 2018 alone, artisanal mining contributed to more than <a href="https://servirglobal.net/Global/Articles/Article/2725/reducing-illegal-gold-mining-in-the-tropical-forests-of-ghana-and-peru-a-forthc">40,000 hectares</a> of deforestation. </p>
<p>An additional <a href="https://www.myjoyonline.com/19000-hectares-of-cocoa-farmlands-are-now-illegal-mining-sites-cocobod/?fbclid=IwAR16BkmdyfX-u9gb45i2rvIqehWXT96QvBQLrq75Fmhdhb1bpbps8lIeJh4">19,000 hectares of cocoa farms</a> have been destroyed by artisanal mining operations between 2021 and the first half of 2022. </p>
<p>In some areas, illegal mining operators have reportedly <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/ghana-gold-mining-cocoa-environment">taken over</a> cocoa farms by force. </p>
<p>Illegal mining operations also cause <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/ghana-60-of-water-bodies-polluted-due-to-illegal-mining-and-other-activities-say-authorities/">60% of the pollution</a> of major rivers.</p>
<p>Illegal mining also affects people’s health. It is responsible for more than 40% of <a href="https://curtisresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/gold_rush.pdf">mental health</a> cases in some mining areas. Most illegal miners use dangerous chemicals such as mercury to separate gold from its ores, leading to the contamination of the land and rivers. Mercury <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mercury-and-health#:%7E:text=Health%20effects%20of%20mercury%20exposure&text=Neurological%20and%20behavioural%20disorders%20may,and%20cognitive%20and%20motor%20dysfunction">causes neurological disorders.</a></p>
<p>The illegal mining crisis has been exacerbated by the entry into Ghana of undocumented Chinese nationals. They import heavy equipment such as excavators, intensifying the environmental impact of artisanal mining in most areas.</p>
<h2>The law</h2>
<p>Ghana has a broad and comprehensive legal framework for mining, with overlapping responsibilities for state institutions. This gets in the way of implementation. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/collegeofsocialscience/research/lincolncentreforecologicaljustice/postgraduateresearch/">found </a> that since 1992 parliament has enacted approximately <a href="https://iclg.com/practice-areas/mining-laws-and-regulations/ghana">30 mining regulations</a>. There are also a host of environmental laws, with various government agencies being responsible for enforcement.</p>
<p>Most importantly, the minerals and mining commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resource, could not enforce mining laws due to <a href="https://www.iss.nl/sites/corporate/files/48-ICAS_CP_Crawford_and_Botchwey.pdf">corruption</a>, regulatory capture and clientelism.</p>
<p>Political influences and informal connections are the major obstacles to enforcing mining laws in the country. This includes politicians being either directly involved in illegal mining or having <a href="https://citinewsroom.com/2022/10/akonta-mining-i-am-not-involved-in-galamsey-chairman-wontumi/">links with people in government</a>. </p>
<p>Recent studies have shown that artisanal miners do not <a href="https://delvedatabase.org/uploads/resources/2019-Country-Profile-Ghana.pdf">own most of the gold</a> they mine, which raises concern over the <a href="https://www.myjoyonline.com/we-will-come-after-you-jinapor-warns-big-men-involved-in-galamsey/">potential involvement</a> of politically exposed persons in illegal mining.</p>
<p>The ‘partisan’ composition of the minerals commission also makes it difficult for them to enforce mining laws. Over the years, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837720326090">appointment of party members</a> into these institutions has ‘neutralised’ its ability to perform their enforcement functions effectively .</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Exploring-the-potential-for-citizen-participatory-practices-in-environmental-decision-making-in-mining-communities-in-Ghana-1600331">findings</a> also show that politicians heavily control the decision-making processes in Ghana. This top-down approach to decision-making has led to lack of cooperation by local residents or communities in addressing illegal mining.</p>
<h2>Missteps</h2>
<p>Ghana has tried several times to address some of the problems associated with illegal mining. For example, in 2017, Citi FM launched a <a href="https://citifmonline.com/2017/04/citifm-launches-stopgalamseynow-campaign/">campaign against galamsey</a>. In response, government deployed military personnel in illegal mining areas under <a href="https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/operation-vanguard-launched-to-wipe-out-galamsey.html">operation vanguard</a> and <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/202205260295.html">operation halt</a> initiatives to evict operators forcefully.</p>
<p>The army seized, destroyed or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301420717303872?casa_token=j1Yb4K0ntpgAAAAA:tWtb3Gn9y6iYpZdbDIF7HMvZtY9fNhlFaEa2fGFdRLRftISKRqAEAm3QeeieqkAuOD80ceh8Rw">burnt</a> mining equipment. </p>
<p>But this jackboot approach failed. It <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/28/ukraine-nato-russia-nuclear-weapons-devastating-poland-foreign-minister?utm_term=6333c6c4584a08eaf4219485ac3580db&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email">triggered unrest</a> which led to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S095965260200032X">confrontations</a> between the officers and some local residents. </p>
<p>My research suggests that operation vanguard resulted in the <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/satellites-flag-deforestation-from-illegal-gold-mines-in-amazon-rainforest-62541115">relocation</a> of some illegal mining to areas where there was no army.</p>
<p>A more sustainable solution is required. Here are its elements.</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>The first is <a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/1176446/exploring-the-potential-for-citizen-participatory.html">enhancing the administrative capacity</a> of the <a href="http://www.epa.gov.gh/epa/">Environmental Protection Agency</a> by, among others: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>involving it in the award of mining concessions. This would place it at the heart of the system for enforcing mining regulations; </p></li>
<li><p>developing a robust reporting system to allow citizens to file complaints directly to the agency about individuals and companies engaged in illegal mining; and</p></li>
<li><p>empowering the agency to compel mining companies and individuals to provide periodic feedback on their mining activities. It must also have a quasi-judicial unit that can surcharge offenders and determine those that are liable for prosecution. This would reduce the long periods it takes to prosecute environmental-related offenders.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Ghana must also implement multilateral environmental agreements to which it is a signatory. This requires political will and commitment to reduce the current implementation <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/30251-doc-consultant_report_on_maputo_from_jane_13-8-11.pdf">delays</a>.</p>
<p>Much of the problem with illegal mining has to do with how mining licenses are issued. The current practice where the minister grants concessions is discriminatory. </p>
<p>The creation of the community mining scheme is designed to reduce unfairness in the award of mining licenses and to encourage local-level participation in mining administration. The recent <a href="https://mlnr.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Communique-01_NATIONAL-CONSULTATIVE-DIALOGUE-ON-SMALL-SCALE-MINING-copy.pdf">small-scale mining consultative</a> forums organised by the Ministry of lands and natural resource also has the potential to promote citizen participation in decision-making. </p>
<p>But to sustain these initiatives, government must demonstrate that its commitment to citizen participation is credible and is not part of a rudimentary check-list.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prince K. Bansah receives funding from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat (GSS). He is affiliated with the Lincoln Centre for Ecological Justice (LCEJ). England. </span></em></p>A community centred approach is key to making headway in the battle against illegal miningPrince K. Bansah, PhD research student, University of LincolnLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1855102022-06-27T02:32:16Z2022-06-27T02:32:16ZFacial recognition is on the rise – but the law is lagging a long way behind<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471008/original/file-20220627-14-q7vf1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4481%2C3216&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/iot-machine-learning-human-object-recognition-794528230">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Private companies and public authorities are quietly using facial recognition systems around Australia. </p>
<p>Despite the growing use of this controversial technology, there is little in the way of specific regulations and guidelines to govern its use.</p>
<h2>Spying on shoppers</h2>
<p>We were reminded of this fact recently when consumer advocates at CHOICE <a href="https://www.choice.com.au/consumers-and-data/data-collection-and-use/how-your-data-is-used/articles/kmart-bunnings-and-the-good-guys-using-facial-recognition-technology-in-store">revealed</a> that major retailers in Australia are using the technology to identify people claimed to be thieves and troublemakers. </p>
<p>There is no dispute about the goal of reducing harm and theft. But there is also little transparency about how this technology is being used. </p>
<p>CHOICE found that most people have no idea their faces are being scanned and matched to stored images in a database. Nor do they know how these databases are created, how accurate they are, and how secure the data they collect is. </p>
<p>As CHOICE discovered, the notification to customers is inadequate. It comes in the form of small, hard-to-notice signs in some cases. In others, the use of the technology is announced in online notices rarely read by customers. </p>
<p>The companies clearly don’t want to draw attention to their use of the technology or to account for how it is being deployed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bunnings-kmart-and-the-good-guys-say-they-use-facial-recognition-for-loss-prevention-an-expert-explains-what-it-might-mean-for-you-185126">Bunnings, Kmart and The Good Guys say they use facial recognition for 'loss prevention'. An expert explains what it might mean for you</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Police are eager</h2>
<p>Something similar is happening with the use of the technology by Australian police. Police in New South Wales, for example, have embarked on a “low-volume” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jul/01/calls-to-stop-nsw-police-trial-of-national-facial-recognition-system-over-lack-of-legal-safeguards">trial</a> of a nationwide face-recognition database. This trial took place despite the fact that the enabling legislation for the national database has not yet been passed.</p>
<p>In South Australia, controversy over Adelaide’s plans to upgrade its CCTV system with face-recognition capability led the city council to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-22/adelaide-city-council-votes-no-to-facial-recognition-in-cctv/101172924?utm_source=pocket_mylist">vote</a> not to purchase the necessary software. The council has also asked South Australia Police not to use face-recognition technology until legislation is in place to govern its use. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1540320043052826624"}"></div></p>
<p>However, SA Police have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-22/adelaide-city-council-votes-no-to-facial-recognition-in-cctv/101172924?utm_source=pocket_mylist">indicated</a> an interest in using the technology. </p>
<p>In a public <a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/sa-police-ignore-adelaide-council-plea-for-facial-recognition-ban-on-cctv-581559">statement</a>, the police described the technology as a potentially useful tool for criminal investigations. The statement also noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no legislative restriction on the use of facial recognition technology in South Australia for investigations. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A controversial tool</h2>
<p>Adelaide City Council’s call for regulation is a necessary response to the expanding use of automated facial recognition. </p>
<p>This is a powerful technology that promises to fundamentally change our experience of privacy and anonymity. There is already a large gap between the amount of personal information collected about us every day and our own knowledge of how this information is being used, and facial recognition will only make the gap bigger.</p>
<p>Recent events suggest a reluctance on the part of retail outlets and public authorities alike to publicise their use of the technology. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/large-scale-facial-recognition-is-incompatible-with-a-free-society-126282">Large-scale facial recognition is incompatible with a free society</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Although it is seen as a potentially useful tool, it can be a controversial one. A world in which remote cameras can identify and track people as they move through public space seems alarmingly Orwellian. </p>
<p>The technology has also been criticised for being invasive and, in some cases, <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/bias-in-facial-recognition-isnt-hard-to-discover-but-its-hard-to-get-rid-of/">biased</a> and inaccurate. In the US, for example, people have already been <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/wrongful-arrests-ai-derailed-3-mens-lives/">wrongly arrested</a> based on matches made by face-recognition systems.</p>
<h2>Public pushback</h2>
<p>There has also been widespread public opposition to the use of the technology in some cities and states in the US, which have gone so far as to impose <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/face-recognition-banned-but-everywhere/">bans</a> on its use.</p>
<p>Surveys show the Australian public have <a href="https://securitybrief.com.au/story/australians-uneasy-about-facial-recognition-tech-report">concerns</a> about the invasiveness of the technology, but that there is also support for its potential use to increase public safety and security.</p>
<p>Facial-recognition technology isn’t going away. It’s likely to become less expensive and more accurate and powerful in the near future. Instead of implementing it piecemeal, under the radar, we need to directly confront both the potential harms and benefits of the technology, and to provide clear rules for its use.</p>
<h2>What would regulations look like?</h2>
<p>Last year, then human rights commissioner Ed Santow called for <a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/human-rights-commission-calls-for-temporary-ban-on-high-risk-govt-facial-recognition-565173">a partial ban</a> on the use of facial-recognition technology. He is now developing model legislation for how it might be regulated in Australia. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1536850168942718976"}"></div></p>
<p>Any regulation of the technology will need to consider both the potential benefits of its use and the risks to privacy rights and civic life. </p>
<p>It will also need to consider enforceable standards for its proper use. These could include the right to correct inaccurate information, the need to provide human confirmation for automated forms of identification, and the setting of minimum standards of accuracy. </p>
<p>They could also entail improving public consultation and consent around the use of the technology, and a requirement for the performance of systems to be accountable to an independent authority and to those researching the technology.</p>
<p>As the reach of facial recognition expands, we need more public and parliamentary debate to develop appropriate regulations for governing its use.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/darwins-smart-city-project-is-about-surveillance-and-control-127118">Darwin's 'smart city' project is about surveillance and control</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p><em>If you’re in Adelaide, there will be a public forum on regulating facial recognition technology at the Town Hall <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/regulating-facial-recognition-technology-in-adelaideand-beyond-tickets-360120358687">tonight</a> (Monday, June 27). Ed Santow and his colleague Lauren Perry will present their model legislation, and they will be joined in discussion by South Australian parliamentarian Tammy Franks and Law Society of South Australia president Justin Stewart-Rattray.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185510/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Andrejevic receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin JD Smith receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Private companies and public authorities are beginning to implement facial recognition technology, even without rules to govern what they can do.Mark Andrejevic, Professor, School of Media, Film, and Journalism, Monash University, Monash UniversityGavin JD Smith, Associate Professor in Sociology, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839092022-05-27T22:00:45Z2022-05-27T22:00:45ZArming teachers – an effective security measure or a false sense of security?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465810/original/file-20220527-23-pqd7cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C109%2C5573%2C3598&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even trained police officers often miss their target during gunfights.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/firearm-instructor-and-student-royalty-free-image/157616700?adppopup=true">RichLegg / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the wake of the <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/24/texas-school-district-locked-down-active-shooter/9910214002/">mass shooting at Robb Elementary School</a> in Uvalde, Texas, some elected officials are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/25/harden-schools-arm-teachers-uvalde/">making calls anew</a> for
<a href="https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1529224340071297025">teachers to be armed and trained to use firearms</a> to protect the nation’s schools. To shine light on the matter, The Conversation reached out to <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=RrYCnwIAAAAJ&hl=en">Aimee Huff</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=6gjKzYoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Michelle Barnhart</a>, two Oregon State University scholars who have studied the ins and outs of putting guns in the hands of the nation’s teachers as a way to protect students.</em></p>
<h2>1. What does the public think about arming teachers?</h2>
<p>According to a 2021 poll, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/04/wide-differences-on-most-gun-policies-between-gun-owners-and-non-owners-but-also-some-agreement/">43% of Americans</a> supported policies that allow school personnel to carry guns in schools.</p>
<p>But if you take a closer look, you see that most of that support comes from Republicans and gun-owners. For instance, 66% of Republican respondents expressed support for such policies, versus just 24% of Democratic respondents. And 63% of gun owners supported allowing school personnel to carry guns, versus just 33% of non-gun owners. </p>
<p>The majority of <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/231224/teachers-prioritize-gun-control-prevent-shootings.aspx">teachers</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/survey-finds-wide-opposition-among-parents-to-arming-teachers/2018/07/16/03674e34-8927-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html">parents</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2020.1858424">students</a> oppose allowing teachers to carry guns.</p>
<p>The largest teachers unions, including the National Education Association, also oppose arming teachers, arguing that bringing more guns into schools “<a href="https://www.nea.org/about-nea/media-center/press-releases/nea-rejects-call-arm-teachers-wake-school-massacre-uvalde-texas">makes schools more dangerous and does nothing to shield our students and educators from gun violence</a>.”</p>
<p>These teachers unions <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/American%20Federation%20of%20Teachers%20(AFT)%20statement.pdf">advocate</a> a preventive approach that includes more gun regulations.</p>
<p>While the public is justifiably concerned with eliminating school shootings, there is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texas-conservatives-armed-teachers-are-solution-school-shootings-2022-05-25/">disagreement</a> over the policies and actions that would be most effective. A 2021 study found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12538">70% of Americans</a> supported the idea of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12538">armed school resource officers</a> and law enforcement in schools, but only <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-ipsos-poll-majority-americans-support-policies-aimed-keep-guns-out-hands-dangerous-individuals">41%</a> supported the idea of training teachers to carry guns in schools.</p>
<p>In our research on <a href="https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/2552033/volumes/v47/NA-47">how Americans think about the rights and responsibilities related to armed self-defense</a>, we even find disagreement among conservative gun owners over how to best protect schoolchildren. Some advocate arming teachers, while other gun owners believe guns in schools ultimately make children less safe. These conservative opponents of arming teachers instead support fortifying the building’s design and features.</p>
<p>After the massacre in Uvalde, we are seeing renewed calls from politicians to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/25/harden-schools-arm-teachers-uvalde/">arm teachers</a> and provide them with <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article261779287.html">specialized training</a>.</p>
<p>However, amid <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-44a7cfb990feaa6ffe482483df6e4683">conflicting reports</a> about whether police officers engaged the Robb Elementary School shooter, there are renewed questions about whether armed teachers would make a difference. Police have <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2022/05/27/police-mistakenly-blocked-classroom-during-texas-school-shooting-dps-says/9959949002/">acknowledged they didn’t enter the school</a> even as kids frantically dialed 911.</p>
<p>Given that there were also armed officers present at the <a href="https://extras.denverpost.com/news/col1123b.htm">Columbine</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/us/parkland-scot-peterson.html">Parkland</a> school massacres in 1999 and 2018, respectively, the public is understandably right to wonder whether armed teachers can effectively neutralize a shooter. Amid reports that trained and experienced police officers may have been unable or unwilling to intervene against the Uvalde shooter, it’s not clear whether teachers would be, either.</p>
<h2>2. What are the potential drawbacks of arming teachers?</h2>
<p>Arming teachers <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-idea-to-arm-teachers-may-miss-the-mark-92335">introduces risks to students and staff</a>, as well as school districts themselves. These include the risk of teachers accidentally shooting themselves or students and fellow staff. There are also moral and legal risks associated with improper or inaccurate defensive use of a firearm - even for teachers who have undertaken specialized firearms training.</p>
<p>One <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_information/RAND_FirearmEvaluation.pdf">study</a> found that highly trained police in gunfights <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_information/RAND_FirearmEvaluation.pdf">hit their target only 18% of the time</a>. Even if teachers, who would likely have less <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/19/teachers-utah-guns-school-shootings">training</a>, achieve the same accuracy, four or five of every six bullets fired by a teacher would hit something or someone other than the shooter. Further, a teacher responding with force to a shooter may be mistaken for the perpetrator by law enforcement or by armed colleagues. </p>
<p>Introducing guns to the school environment also poses <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/695762">everyday risks</a>. Armed teachers may unintentionally discharge their firearm. For instance, an armed police officer accidentally discharged his weapon in his office at a school in <a href="https://bit.ly/2BnC8zT">Alexandria, Virginia</a> in 2018. Guns can also fall into the wrong hands. <a href="https://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(12)01408-4/fulltext">Research</a> on shootings that took place in hospital emergency rooms found that in 23% of the cases, the weapon used was a gun the perpetrator took from a hospital security guard.</p>
<p>Students could also access firearms that are improperly stored or mishandled. <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2017.304262">Improper storage</a> is a common problem among American gun owners. In a school setting, this has resulted in students finding a <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/arming-teachers-introduces-new-risks-into-schools/">teacher’s misplaced firearm</a>, sometimes taking it or reporting it to another school official. News reports show that guns carried into schools have <a href="https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2018/10/24/student-substitute-teacher-back-flip-gun-falls-out">fallen out</a> of teachers’ clothing, and have been left in <a href="https://bit.ly/2G9jlfF">bathrooms</a> and <a href="https://bit.ly/2GtNfeb">locker rooms</a>. There have also been reports of students <a href="https://bit.ly/2V3psWX">stealing</a> guns from teachers.</p>
<p>Insurance companies also see concealed guns on school grounds as creating a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-arming-teachers-20180226-story.html">heightened liability risk</a>.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/90024239">drawbacks</a> to arming teachers involve the learning environment. In particular, owing to structural racism and discriminatory school security policies, Black high school students are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X211046637">less supportive</a> than white students of arming teachers – 16% versus 26% – and report feeling less safe if teachers are carrying firearms. </p>
<h2>3. What are the arguments for arming teachers?</h2>
<p>Proponents emphasize that teachers, as Americans, have a right to use firearms to defend themselves against violent crime, including a school shooter. Our <a href="https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/2552033/volumes/v47/NA-47">research</a> shows that some people interpret their right to armed self-defense as a moral obligation, and argue that teachers have both a right and a responsibility to use firearms to protect themselves and their students. </p>
<p>Parents who regularly carry handguns to protect themselves and their children may take comfort knowing that their child’s teacher could perform the role of protector at school. </p>
<p>In a school shooting, where lives can be saved or ended in a matter of seconds, some people may <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/shooting-people-is-deescalation-three-days-with-teachers-training-to-use-guns-in-schools/">feel more secure</a> believing a shooter would immediately meet armed resistance from a teacher without needing to wait for an armed school officer to respond. </p>
<h2>4. Have any school districts allowed teachers to arm themselves?</h2>
<p>Yes. Teachers may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12538">carry guns at school</a> in districts in at least 19 states. The idea surfaced as a viable policy after the 1999 Columbine shooting, and gained momentum after the 2018 Parkland shooting. </p>
<p>The number of school districts that permit teachers to be armed is <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/439z7q/exclusive-how-parkland-created-a-rush-to-arm-teachers-and-school-staff-across-the-country">difficult</a> to ascertain. Policies <a href="https://gunsandamerica.org/story/19/03/22/with-no-national-standards-policies-for-arming-teachers-are-often-left-to-local-school-districts/">vary</a> across states. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/nyregion/guns-schools-ban-teachers-ny.html">New York</a> bars school districts from allowing teachers to carry guns, while <a href="https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/laws-allowing-armed-staff-in-K12-schools.html">Missouri and Montana</a> authorize teachers to carry firearms.</p>
<h2>5. What were the results?</h2>
<p>There are documented <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/great-mills-high-shooter-shot-by-school-officer-killed-self-police/44326/">incidents</a> of school staff using their firearm to neutralize a shooter. However, researchers <a href="https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/laws-allowing-armed-staff-in-K12-schools.html">have not found evidence</a> that arming teachers increases school safety. Rather, arming teachers may contribute to a <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/vio.2018.0044">false sense of security</a> for teachers, students and the community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Putting guns in the hands of schoolteachers is a popular idea among gun-owners and conservatives, but research suggests it may pose more problems than it solves.Aimee Dinnín Huff, Associate Professor, Marketing, Oregon State UniversityMichelle Barnhart, Associate Professor, Marketing, Oregon State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1828302022-05-16T12:17:37Z2022-05-16T12:17:37ZOnline data could be used against people seeking abortions now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463063/original/file-20220513-25-vs4r8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7006%2C4676&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apps for tracking reproductive health are convenient, but the data they collect could be used against you.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/menstruation-cycle-application-on-smart-phone-royalty-free-image/652267166">Tarik Kizilkaya/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In overturning <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18">Roe v. Wade</a>, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf">Dobbs case</a> does not merely deprive women of reproductive control and physical agency as a matter of constitutional law, but it also changes their relationship with the online world. Anyone in a state where abortion is now illegal who relies on the internet for information, products and services related to reproductive health is subject to online policing.</p>
<p>All women of child-bearing age, regardless of how secure and how privileged they may have imagined themselves to be, are now among <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82786-1_15">the marginalized and vulnerable populations whose privacy is at risk</a>.</p>
<p>As a researcher who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=u3BoLzgAAAAJ&hl=en">studies online privacy</a>, I’ve known for some time how <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/05/geofence-warrants-and-the-fourth-amendment/">Google</a>, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/10/21/dataminr-twitter-surveillance-racial-profiling/">social media</a> and internet data generally can be used for <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479892822/the-rise-of-big-data-policing/">surveillance by law enforcement</a> to cast digital dragnets. Women are at risk not just from what they reveal about their reproductive status on social media, but also by data from their <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/10/1097482967/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-abortion-period-apps">health applications</a>, which could incriminate them if it were subpoenaed.</p>
<h2>Who is tracked and how</h2>
<p>People who are most vulnerable to online privacy encroachment and to the use or abuse of their data have traditionally been those society deems less worthy of protection: <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/disparate-impact-surveillance/">people without means, power or social standing</a>. Surveillance directed at marginalized people reflects not only a lack of interest in protecting them, but also a presumption that, by virtue of their social identity, they are more likely to commit crimes or to transgress in ways that might justify <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814776384/punished/%5D">preemptive policing</a>.</p>
<p>Many marginalized people happen to be women, including <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25115">low-income mothers</a>, for whom the mere act of applying for public assistance can subject them to presumptions of criminal intent. These presumptions are often used to justify <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25115&promo=S17XASA">invasions of their privacy</a>. Now, with anti-abortion legislation sweeping Republican-controlled states and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-triggers-the-trigger-laws-that-could-ban-abortions-184361">poised to go into effect</a> with the end Roe v. Wade, all women of reproductive age in those states are likely to be subject to those same presumptions. </p>
<p>Before, women had to worry only that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/?sh=698664166668">Target</a> or Amazon might learn of their pregnancies. Based on what’s already known about <a href="https://americandragnet.org/">privacy incursions by law enforcement against marginalized people</a>, it’s likely that in the post-Roe world women will be more squarely in the crosshairs of <a href="https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/digital-forensics">digital forensics</a>. For example, law enforcement agencies routinely use <a href="https://www.upturn.org/work/mass-extraction/">forensic tools to search people’s cellphones</a> when investigating a wide range of crimes, sometimes without a search warrant. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463069/original/file-20220513-24-bf8f6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a smart phone screen showing a dialog box offering three options for location settings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463069/original/file-20220513-24-bf8f6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463069/original/file-20220513-24-bf8f6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463069/original/file-20220513-24-bf8f6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463069/original/file-20220513-24-bf8f6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463069/original/file-20220513-24-bf8f6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463069/original/file-20220513-24-bf8f6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463069/original/file-20220513-24-bf8f6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many apps track your location, and some of the companies behind those apps sell that data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/WeatherChannelLawsuit/6fdaf1911dba476a93d28bd31fd2aaa4/photo">AP Photo/Brian Melley</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Imagine a scenario in which a co-worker or neighbor reports someone to the authorities, which gives law enforcement officials grounds to pursue digital evidence. That evidence could include, for example, internet searches about abortion providers and period app data showing missed periods.</p>
<p>The risk is especially acute in places that foster <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/us/politics/texas-abortion-law-facts.html">bounty hunting</a>. In a state like Texas where there is a potential for citizens to have standing to sue people who help others access abortion services, everything you say or do in any context becomes relevant because there’s no <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/probable_cause">probable cause</a> hurdle to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/discovery">accessing your data</a>. </p>
<p>Outside of that case, it’s difficult to do full justice to all the risks because context matters, and different combinations of circumstances can conspire to elevate harms. Here are risks to keep in mind:</p><ul>
<li>Sharing information about your pregnancy on social media.
</li><li><a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/user-data/overview?user_requests_report_period=series:requests,accounts;authority:US;time:2021H1&lu=user_requests_report_period">Internet search behavior</a> related directly or indirectly to your pregnancy or reproductive health, regardless of the search engine you use.
</li><li><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vzjb/location-data-abortion-clinics-safegraph-planned-parenthood">Location tracking via your phone</a>, for example showing that you visited a place that could be linked to your reproductive health.
</li><li>Using apps that <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/health-privacy/what-your-period-tracker-app-knows-about-you-a8701683935/">reveal relevant sensitive data</a>, like your menstrual cycle.
</li><li>Being overconfident in using encryption or anonymous tools.
</li></ul><p></p>
<h2>Heeding alarms</h2>
<p>Scholars, including my colleagues and me, have been raising alarms for years, arguing that surveillance activities and lack of privacy threatening <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3313831.3376167?cid=81100401804">those most vulnerable are ultimately a threat to all</a>. That’s because the number of people at risk can rise when political forces identify a broader population as posing threats justifying surveillance.</p>
<p>The lack of action on privacy vulnerability is due in part to a failure of imagination, which frequently <a href="https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=faculty_publications">blinkers people who see their own position as largely safe</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3589960">in a social and political system</a>.</p>
<p>There is, however, another reason for inattention. When considering mainstream privacy obligations and requirements, the privacy and security community has, for decades, been caught up in a debate about whether people really care about their privacy in practice, even if they value it in principle. </p>
<p>I’d argue that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io%2Fta2z3">privacy paradox</a> – the belief that people are less motivated to protect their privacy than they claim to be – remains conventional wisdom today. This view diverts attention from taking action, including giving people tools to fully evaluate their risks. The privacy paradox is arguably more a commentary on how little people understand the implications of what’s been called <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395694/">surveillance capitalism</a> or feel empowered to defend against it. </p>
<p>With the general public cast as indifferent, it is easy to assume that people generally don’t want or need protection, and that all groups are at equal risk. Neither is true.</p>
<h2>All in it together?</h2>
<p>It’s hard to talk about silver linings, but as these online risks spread to a broader population, the importance of online safety will become a mainstream concern. Online safety includes being careful about <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-digital-footprints-are-more-than-a-privacy-risk-they-could-help-hackers-infiltrate-computer-networks-177123">digital footprints</a> and using anonymous browsers.</p>
<p>Maybe the general population, at least in states that are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-bans-restrictons-roe-v-wade.html">triggering or validating</a> abortion bans, will come to recognize that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/04/abortion-digital-privacy/">Google data</a> can be incriminating.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on June 24, 2022, to indicate that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nora McDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Data privacy is an abstract issue for most people, even though virtually everyone is at risk. Now that abortion may become illegal in some states, digital surveillance could take an even darker turn.Nora McDonald, Assistant Professor of Information Technology, University of Cincinnati Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1762902022-04-27T15:38:34Z2022-04-27T15:38:34ZI spent three years in a paedophile hunting team – here’s what I learned<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455585/original/file-20220331-27-3n0889.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=278%2C259%2C6090%2C4121&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/programmer-on-computer-219655585">frank_peters / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>By the time you finish reading this article, at least one new case of child sexual abuse will have been reported. In the US, a child is sexually assaulted <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics">every nine minutes</a>. In the UK, this figure is closer to one <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/news-opinion/2020/child-sexual-offences-rise/">every seven minutes</a>. The sexual abuse of children is a horrifying and widespread problem that <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50302912">police admit</a> they cannot arrest their way out of. </p>
<p>High-profile cases of systemic child sexual abuse – Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein, Larry Nassar, cardinals, bishops and priests – have placed the threat front of mind and led members of the public to take matters into their own hands. Social media has given them the means to do so effectively. </p>
<p>Pretending to be children online, hunters wait for predators to initiate sexual communications. When predators ignore reminders that they are talking to “children”, hunters expose them in livestreamed “stings” once they have sufficient evidence of grooming. Several <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sentences-increased-for-men-involved-in-attempted-child-sex-offences">cases</a> have shown that talking to decoys as though they were a real child can be grounds enough for sentencing.</p>
<p>These stings take place in public (where a predator has asked a child to meet him in a park or shopping mall) or at the predator’s home. In the UK alone, over 150 hunting teams were collectively responsible for 1,148 confrontations with suspected paedophiles in 2021. Their evidence helped secure prosecutions in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50302912">hundreds of cases</a>.</p>
<p>I spent <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2020.1492">three years embedded</a> with one of the UK’s most prolific hunting teams. An analysis of 356,799 words of private, online team chats during this period, and 831 pages of field notes and interviews, offers unique insights into what it’s like to hunt another human being. </p>
<p>For many involved in these groups, there’s the thrill of the chase. But some also found a deep sense of purpose in confronting a moral pandemic. Many hunters themselves have experienced abuse, and this colours how they view their hunting activities. “So many in this community have been deeply affected by these scum”, one said. “If I can save one child from seeing the world through a survivor’s life then I am blessed”, another added. </p>
<p>Hunters spend nearly as much time judging each other’s stings as they do baiting predators. They do so to reaffirm the purity of their motive – to keep children safe – compared to other teams they accuse of hunting purely for entertainment by poking fun at predators or being physically or verbally abusive.</p>
<p>Still, almost all teams value viewing figures and having an audience. As one explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The two we did this weekend have some great exposure: a quarter of a million and 200,000 [viewers]. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The hero’s journey</h2>
<p>The way paedophile hunters talk about their work follows a narrative akin to the hero’s journey found in tales like Batman. A selfless hero saves his community from an evil threat when formal institutions (police, politicians) fail to do so. Having restored the moral order, the superhero recedes into obscurity. </p>
<p>Hunters refer to sexual predators as “monsters” and “vile beasts” that prey on “the innocent”. They constantly remind each other to “keep safe” during stings, even as hunters outnumber predators four or more to one. </p>
<p>This attitude offers a logic and a moral justification for what hunters do. Believing that “police should be grateful we are doing their job for them”, they position themselves as society’s last line of defence. </p>
<p>These characters feed off each other: the more impotent the police or parents are perceived to be, the more vulnerable the child, the more beastly the monster, the more heroic the hunter. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Silhouette of a medieval knight on horse carrying a flag against a sunset background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455595/original/file-20220331-27-wxqqli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455595/original/file-20220331-27-wxqqli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455595/original/file-20220331-27-wxqqli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455595/original/file-20220331-27-wxqqli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455595/original/file-20220331-27-wxqqli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455595/original/file-20220331-27-wxqqli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455595/original/file-20220331-27-wxqqli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hero’s journey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/silhouette-medieval-knight-on-horse-carrying-402695434">rudall30 / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Relationship with police</h2>
<p>While police broadly welcome citizen involvement in fighting crime, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50302912">they think hunters unhelpful</a>, even given the role of the evidence they collect. The police accuse hunters of acting on insufficiently robust evidence and jeopardising ongoing investigations. They also say hunters fail to safeguard suspects with learning difficulties who may prove difficult to prosecute, nor do they take sufficient action to protect suspects and their families from reprisals by neighbours and psychological injury.</p>
<p>It can be difficult to understand why hunting teams persist with live streaming stings when less harmful alternatives are easily available. They could, for example, simply hand any evidence to police, upload sting footage only after convictions are secured in court or avoid filming the target’s face to not reveal his identity online.</p>
<p>Since predators are typically released on bail following arrest, hunters argue that live streaming alerts the public of a predator in their midst. Parents deserve to know “there’s a nonce roaming the neighbourhood”, they reason. </p>
<p>My experience suggests that hunters persist with live streaming stings not because they are not aware of less harmful alternatives, but because it is the apotheosis of their quest. The sting is the final battle between good and evil that tests the character of a hunter and must be played out before a live audience – any subsequent convictions in court are, for some teams, neither here nor there. What police presume is a means to an end is, for hunters as heroes, an end itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark de Rond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Paedophile hunting follows the archetype of the ‘hero’s journey’.Mark de Rond, Professor of Organisational Ethnography, Cambridge Judge Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1721202021-12-09T21:48:35Z2021-12-09T21:48:35ZRethinking police reform: From defunding to promoting sustainability<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433768/original/file-20211124-27-ml9azc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5160%2C3445&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rethinking what we mean by police sustainability, how we measure it and how we hold the police accountable for outcomes, may create the opening for a more viable path to reform. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/us/derek-chauvin-sentencing-george-floyd/index.html">Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd</a> on June 25, 2021. Since then, calls for police reform haven’t been as loud. </p>
<p>One explanation might be attributed to the language of “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/05/19/7-myths-about-defunding-the-police-debunked/">defund the police</a>.” This slogan <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/25/us/defund-police-crime-spike/index.html">has been polarizing</a>, alienating police and other stakeholders from crucial conversations about change.</p>
<p>The never-ending pandemic and an increased focus on climate change may also have helped stall talks; however, the issues that led to the many calls for change have not gone away, nor are they new.</p>
<h2>Calls for reform</h2>
<p>Since the 1980s — and throughout my 24 years of policing experience — recruitment of diverse officers and diversity training have been consistently identified as key to improving police-minority relations. </p>
<p>For instance, in 1989, the <a href="https://novascotia.ca/just/marshall_inquiry/_docs/Royal%20Commission%20on%20the%20Donald%20Marshall%20Jr%20Prosecution_findings.pdf">Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr. Prosecution</a> (an Indigenous man who was wrongly convicted), recommended the police establish recruitment targets to reflect the general population, develop policies on racial stereotyping and deliver cultural sensitivity training to their members. </p>
<p>Recently, a <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/432/SECU/Reports/RP11434998/securp06/securp06-e.pdf">House of Commons committee</a> also recommended enhanced training and diversity hiring as part of a response to reports of systemic racism in policing. </p>
<p>Similarly, President Barack Obama’s 2015 <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf"><em>Task Force on 21st Century Policing</em></a> called for the creation of a diverse law enforcement workforce to improve understanding and effectiveness in working with communities, along with the adoption of a police culture of accountability and transparency and efforts to proactively promote public trust through non-enforcement engagement activities.</p>
<p>While a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53309-4">seemingly impenetrable police culture</a> has been consistently cited as a barrier to reform, from my related academic research, I propose that an equally problematic issue is the continued reliance on outdated indicators of police performance. In short, these indicators reinforce conventional ideas of police sustainability rather than align with the concerns of “defund the police” advocates.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of police officers stand together wearing helmets with faceshields above their heads." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433767/original/file-20211124-25-n6xf9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recruitment of diverse officers and diversity training have been consistently identified as key to improving police-minority relations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sean Lee/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sustainability now</h2>
<p>Traditionally, police sustainability has been associated with police effectiveness and demonstrations of value, which have often been linked to <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248476.pdf">crime stats, crime clearance rates and arrests</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these metrics provide no information about the experiences of Black, Indigenous and other racialized people. They also fail to provide information on public perceptions of fair and equitable treatment by police. </p>
<p>Internally, limited attention has been paid to assessing the experiences of women and racialized officers. Therefore, it is no surprise that their <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00015-eng.htm">representation within the police</a> is lower than in the general population. </p>
<p>Women and racialized officers are also continually subjected to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/proposed-class-action-lawsuit-led-by-former-constable-alleges-racism-in-rcmp-1.5022934?cid=ps:localnewscampaign:searchad:ds:calgarycrawl">discrimination </a> and <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/06/28/women-in-policing-share-stories-of-harassment-ask-why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-justice/">harassment</a> within their own departments.</p>
<p>Additional problems with traditional indicators of success were highlighted in a session on <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248654.pdf">policing and public safety</a> at the Harvard Kennedy School. A summary report from this session noted that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Just as we measure internal organizational success by employee adherence to rules, we measure external operational success through crime rates and arrest statistics. We do both to the detriment of building trust and legitimacy, because they ignore what the research tells us and what the public and the rank and file tell us. Both the public and rank-and-file officers want to be treated fairly by those in authority. We should not be surprised that we end up with poor morale among our officers echoed by the lack of trust from the community.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Studies show a promising link between fair treatment and several positive outcomes, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370813491898">increased openness of officers to change</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/13639511311329732">improved attitudes about community policing</a> and increased support for more <a href="https://asu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/justice-from-within-the-relations-between-a-procedurally-justorga">democratic forms of policing</a>. </p>
<p>My own research also suggests that treating officers fairly and with dignity and respect may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOTB-11-2019-0132">counter harmful aspects of police culture</a>. </p>
<p>Clearly, it’s time to rethink how we approach police reform as well as how we define and assess police sustainability. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person wearing a face mask carries a sign that reads 'defund brutality'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433766/original/file-20211124-19-z16qev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A key outcome of police sustainability is enhanced legitimacy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Redefining police sustainability</h2>
<p>In the book, <a href="https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/policing-for-sustainable-development-goals/"><em>Policing for Sustainable Development Goals</em></a>, the authors advocate for a more human-rights oriented style of policing that focuses on: protecting the vulnerable, working within the rule of law and being representative of a transparent, effective and accountable public organization. </p>
<p>Consistent with the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">UN sustainable development goals</a>, police sustainability should also be concerned with providing a safe and secure workplace.</p>
<p>Repositioning police sustainability as creating public value while also ensuring a positive societal impact means paying attention to policies and practices that promote a safe and healthy working environment on top of police actions that benefit communities. </p>
<p>Under this new interpretation of sustainability, indicators of success pertain to both the internal and external environments. Internally, these indicators include positive assessments of interactions that may also act as early warnings of possible misconduct. </p>
<p>Externally, a key outcome of police sustainability is <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7419&context=jclc">enhanced legitimacy</a>, which can be measured through citizen perceptions that the police act lawfully, treat community members fairly and with respect and keep them safe. </p>
<p>Rethinking what we mean by police sustainability, how we measure it and how we hold the police accountable for outcomes, may create the opening for a more viable path to reform. </p>
<p>Such actions call for examining police reform through the lens of sustainability rather than “defunding.” In the end, we may just achieve the same goal of meaningful change without alienating key stakeholders in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Workman-Stark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The continued reliance on outdated indicators of police performance reinforce conventional ideas of police sustainability rather than align with the concerns of “defund the police” advocates.Angela Workman-Stark, Associate Professor, Organizational Behaviour, Athabasca UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1700462021-10-17T14:35:38Z2021-10-17T14:35:38ZTrial of Ahmaud Arbery’s accused killers will scrutinize the use – and abuse – of ‘outdated’ citizen’s arrest laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426732/original/file-20211015-30-zrr471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C8%2C1891%2C921&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Defense set to claim that the three men accused over death of unarmed Black man were trying to conduct a citizen's arrest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AhmaudArberyGeorgiaTrial/1bd424cfd2e94900aaecc46013d9ca78/photo?Query=Arbery&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=245&currentItemNo=6">Glynn County Detention Center via AP, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/arbery-murder-trial-begins-monday-amid-a-burning-question/ATIOOAZ2MFGZ5J34N5P62BUMLE/">murder trial of three men</a> accused in the death of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-killing-of-ahmaud-arbery-highlights-the-danger-of-jogging-while-black-138085">unarmed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery</a> gets underway on Oct. 18, 2021, with the issue of what makes for a lawful citizen’s arrest set to be central to court arguments.</p>
<p>Arbery was shot dead on Feb, 23, 2020, after being pursued through a residential area of Brunswick, Georgia. </p>
<p>The three men accused in his killing – Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan – contend that they had <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52623151">reason to believe</a> Arbery was responsible for home break-ins in the area. Arbery, they claim, was shot as he tried to resist a legal <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/was-pursuit-killing-ahmaud-arbery-perfectly-legal-it-s-not-n1205581">citizen’s arrest</a> by wrestling a shotgun from Travis McMichael.</p>
<p>Whether the defendants acted lawfully will depend, in large part, on the strength of their citizen’s arrest claim. At a pretrial hearing in July, <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/arbery-murder-trial-begins-monday-amid-a-burning-question/ATIOOAZ2MFGZ5J34N5P62BUMLE/">prosecutors noted</a> that Arbery was not carrying anything at the time of his death. They are expected to argue in the trial that there was no grounds for an attempted citizen’s arrest.</p>
<p>The controversy surrounding Arbery’s killing led to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-georgia-arrests-government-and-politics-276c5e51f5363112537ceab4159f9dc5">repeal</a> of Georgia’s almost-150-year-old citizen’s arrest law. But as a <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/law/faculty_and_staff/directory/stoughton_seth.php">law professor and former police officer</a>, I’m aware that most states retain similar, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-citizen-arrest-law-georgia.html">outdated laws</a> that set the stage for vigilantism.</p>
<h2>From ‘vigilant Snorers’ to police officers</h2>
<p>So-called “citizen’s arrest” laws, which allow private individuals to apprehend an alleged wrongdoer, have been around for centuries. Such laws protect people from civil or criminal liability in the event they “arrest” someone.</p>
<p>In theory, that makes sense. Public safety is everyone’s responsibility, after all. In practice, however, citizen’s arrest doctrines have set the stage for tragic, unnecessary and avoidable confrontations and deaths.</p>
<p>Modern citizen’s arrest rules can be traced back to 1285, when England’s <a href="https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/resource/statute-of-winchester-1285/">Statute of Winchester</a> directed that citizens “not spare any nor conceal any felonies” and commanded that citizens bring “fresh suit” – prosecute – whenever they see “robberies and felonies committed.” </p>
<p>Back then, there was no “law enforcement” as we understand it today – no cops, no prosecutors. It was largely left to private citizens to apprehend and prosecute felons. </p>
<p>Prior to the <a href="https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/">development of professionalized police agencies</a> in the mid- to late-1800s, there was no particular legal distinction between arrests made by private citizens and those made by public officials.</p>
<p>In English cities and larger towns, able-bodied men were expected to take generally unpaid shifts patrolling as night watchmen. Watchmen were often conscripted, and citizens of means could hire someone to serve on their behalf, resulting in a dubious dedication to duty. </p>
<p>This practice extended beyond England to its colonies. An account <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/New-York-Eighteenth-Century-Municipality/dp/1273537610/">published in</a> the New York Gazette in the mid-18th century described night watchmen as “a parcel of idle, drinking, vigilant Snorers, who never quelled any nocturnal Tumult in their Lives.”</p>
<p>When watchmen did take action, they often did so in problematic ways. In New England, that often involved enforcing the ethnic segregation between different neighborhoods. In the mid-1600s, the slave codes of the colonial American South declared that controlling the enslaved population was a matter of public responsibility – the “public” here being exclusively white men. Paid and volunteer militiamen were tasked with, as the author Kristian Williams has noted, “<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Our-Enemies-Blue-Kristian-2007-08-27/dp/B01N9N01BR/">making regular patrols to catch runaways, prevent slave gatherings, search slave quarters … and generally intimidate the black population</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338040/original/file-20200527-20255-104kbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338040/original/file-20200527-20255-104kbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338040/original/file-20200527-20255-104kbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338040/original/file-20200527-20255-104kbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338040/original/file-20200527-20255-104kbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338040/original/file-20200527-20255-104kbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338040/original/file-20200527-20255-104kbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A patrolman looking over the passes of plantation slaves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-plantation-police-look-over-the-passes-of-a-few-negro-news-photo/615294610?adppopup=true">Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shopkeeper’s privilege and security guards</h2>
<p>Today more than 18,000 local, state and federal agencies provide police services in the U.S. But citizen’s arrest lives on in the form of <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/abstractdb/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=44479">a national patchwork of statutes and common law doctrines</a>. </p>
<p>Most states have “<a href="https://cbr.cba.org/index.php/cbr/article/view/4559">shopkeeper’s privilege</a>” laws that provide a defense for business owners and employees <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17159519265033714409">who arrest someone for theft</a> so long as they have probable cause. Resisting such an arrest <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/STATUTES/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0800-0899/0812/Sections/0812.015.html">is a crime</a> in some states. Private security guards, similarly, may be <a href="https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t40c018.php">authorized to make arrests</a>, at least on the property they are hired to protect. And when bounty hunters capture someone who has jumped bail, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2434794054734165793&q=%22is+likened+to+the+rearrest+by+the+sheriff+of+an+escaping+prisoner%22&hl=en&as_sdt=6,34">the Supreme Court has said</a> the arrest “is likened to the rearrest by the sheriff of an escaping prisoner.”</p>
<p>Those who are not a shopkeeper, security guard or bounty hunter may still be able to effect an arrest under more generic citizen’s arrest rules.</p>
<p>Citizen’s arrest rules are not the same as the legal rules that govern arrests by police officers. In some ways, private individuals have more limited authority to make arrests than officers.</p>
<p>In many states, for example, an officer can make arrests for offenses classified as misdemeanors – minor crimes typically punishable by up to a year in jail – but a private citizen cannot. </p>
<p>In other states, a private citizen may make an arrest only if they witness or have firsthand knowledge of an offense. This <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2010/title-17/chapter-4/article-4/17-4-60/">was the case in Georgia</a>, at least with regard to misdemeanor crimes, until public pressure after Arbery’s death led to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-georgia-arrests-government-and-politics-276c5e51f5363112537ceab4159f9dc5">2021 repeal</a> of the state’s citizen’s arrest statute. Under the laws in effect at the time, Arbery’s pursuers would only have been able to make a citizen’s arrest if they had probable cause to believe that he had committed a felony.</p>
<p>In a similar vein, some states only permit individuals to invoke “citizen’s arrest” as a defense to civil or criminal liability if the person they arrested <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14000891240972281863&q=Commonwealth++v.Lussier,++128++N.E.2d++569++(Mass.++1955)&hl=en&as_sdt=6,34">actually committed an offense</a>, while officers are protected if they had probable cause to believe that the person committed an offense (even if that belief was incorrect).</p>
<p>But in other ways, private actors have more authority than officers do. Perhaps most obviously, the constitutional rules that limit
police authority to conduct searches, seizures, and interrogations <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11486599334992839241&q=428+U.S.+433+janis&hl=en&as_sdt=6,34">do not apply</a> when “a private party … commits the offending act.”</p>
<p>Citizens may have more authority to use force than law officers, too, depending on state law. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t17c030.php">South Carolina</a>, a citizen can use deadly force to effect the nighttime arrest of someone who has any stolen property in their possession or, more problematically, someone who “flees when he is hailed” if the circumstances “raise just suspicion of his design to steal.” </p>
<p>If an officer in South Carolina did the same, he would likely run afoul of state law or the Fourth Amendment, which the Supreme Court <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5843997099226288287">has held</a> requires probable cause “that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury.”</p>
<h2>Race and status</h2>
<p>No one knows how many citizen’s arrests occur in the U.S. every year because the police are usually called and an officer processes the arrest, leaving little evidence of private involvement.</p>
<p>We do know, however, that private arrest authority is too often <a href="https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1435&context=cjlpp">badly misused</a> by <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/jgrj11&div=18">those who believe their higher social status</a> gives them authority over someone they perceive as having lower status. </p>
<p>Frequently, this <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/175619">falls along racial lines</a>, as seen in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/05/07/what-is-citizens-arrest-why-is-practice-still-use/">detention of immigrants by militias at the U.S. border</a>, the attitude of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-gated-communities-such-as-where-trayvon-martin-died-a-dangerous-mind-set/2012/04/06/gIQAwWG8zS_story.html">nightwatchmen in gated communities</a>, and in situations like the Arbery case.</p>
<p>The three defendants say they chased Arbery because they believed he was behind neighborhood burglaries and allege they <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2020/05/13/ahmaud-arbery-suspects-allegedly-confronted-mcmichael-february-11-shooting/">saw him trespass</a> prior to the incident. Arbery, of course, had committed no crime; under <a href="http://ga.elaws.us/law/section16-7-21">Georgia’s “criminal trespass” law</a>, entry onto “land or premises,” including a construction site, is only a crime when committed “with an unlawful purpose” or when there are posted “No Trespassing” signs. There is no evidence of either in this case. </p>
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<p>And even if Arbery had committed a burglary, his death would have still been the result of an unjustified act of vigilantism. As the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5843997099226288287&q=tennessee+v.+garner&hl=en&as_sdt=6,34">Supreme Court has said</a> in the context of police uses of force, “It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape.” Remembering that as the U.S. considers reforming citizen’s arrest statutes may go a long way in preventing any further unnecessary deaths.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/ahmaud-arberys-killing-puts-a-spotlight-on-the-blurred-blue-line-of-citizens-arrest-laws-139275">article originally published</a> on May 29, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seth W. Stoughton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Three men who pursued a black jogger who died of a shotgun wound in the confrontation claim they were trying to conduct a citizen’s arrest.Seth W. Stoughton, Associate Professor of Law, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1672632021-09-06T20:10:14Z2021-09-06T20:10:14ZFacebook or Twitter posts can now be quietly modified by the government under new surveillance laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419519/original/file-20210906-23-hvhlnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C2000%2C1119&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6623">Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill</a>, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security. </p>
<p>The bill updates the
<a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/nat-security/files/surveillance-devices-act-2004-annual-report-2015-16.pdf">Surveillance Devices Act 2004</a> and <a href="http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Series/C2004A02124">Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979</a>. In essence, it allows law-enforcement agencies or authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) to modify, add, copy or delete data when investigating serious online crimes. </p>
<p>The Human Rights Law Centre says the bill has <a href="https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2021/8/25/insufficient-safeguards-in-new-surveillance-law">insufficient safeguards for free speech and press freedom</a>. Digital Rights Watch calls it a “<a href="https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/2021/09/02/australias-new-mass-surveillance-mandate/">warrantless surveillance regime</a>” and notes the government ignored the recommendations of a bipartisan parliamentary committee to <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/024617/toc_pdf/AdvisoryreportontheSurveillanceLegislationAmendment(IdentifyandDisrupt)Bill2020.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">limit the powers granted by the new law</a>.</p>
<p>What’s more, legal hacking by law enforcement may make it easier for criminal hackers to illegally access computer systems via the same vulnerabilities used by the government.</p>
<h2>What’s in the law?</h2>
<p>The bill introduces <a href="https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/australia-surveillance-bill/">three new powers</a> for law-enforcement agencies:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>“data disruption warrants” allow authorities to “disrupt data” by copying, deleting or modifying data as they see fit</p></li>
<li><p>“network activity warrants” permit the collection of intelligence from devices or networks that are used, or likely to be used, by subject of the warrant</p></li>
<li><p>“account takeover warrants” let agencies take control of an online account (such as a social media account) to gather information for an investigation.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>There is also an “emergency authorisation” procedure that allows these activities without a warrant under certain circumstances.</p>
<h2>How is this different to previous laws?</h2>
<p>Previous legislation, such as the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A02124">Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979</a> and the <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/for-your-information-australian-privacy-law-and-practice-alrc-report-108/71-telecommunications-act/telecommunications-act-1997-cth/">Telecommunications Act 1997</a>, contained <a href="https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/16823228/mq-11057-Publisher+version+%28open+access%29.pdf">greater privacy protections</a>. Those laws, and others such as the <a href="http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Series/C2004A01387">Surveillances Devices Act 2004</a>, do permit law-enforcement agencies to intercept or access communications and data under certain circumstances. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-privacy-laws-gutted-in-court-ruling-on-what-is-personal-information-71486">Australia's privacy laws gutted in court ruling on what is 'personal information'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, the new bill gives agencies unprecedented interception or “hacking” powers. It also allows “assistance orders”, which could require selected individuals to <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/national-security/lawful-access-telecommunications/telecommunications-interception-and-surveillance">assist government hacking</a> or face up to ten years in prison. </p>
<h2>Why do police argue this bill is required?</h2>
<p>According to the Department of Home Affairs, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence_and_Security/IdentifyandDisruptBill/Submissions">more and more criminal activity</a> makes use of the “dark web” and “anonymising technologies”. Previous powers are not enough to keep up with these new technologies.</p>
<p>In our view, specific and targeted access to users’ information and activities may be needed to identify possible criminals or terrorists. In some cases, law enforcement agencies may need to modify, delete, copy or add content of users to prevent things like the distribution of child exploitation material. Lawful interception is key to protecting public and national security in the fight of global community against cybercrimes. </p>
<h2>How does lawful data interception work?</h2>
<p>“Lawful interception” is a network technology that allows electronic surveillance of communications, as authorised by judicial or administrative order. There are standards (which means regulations and rules) for telecommunication and internet service providers to achieve this, such as those recommended by the <a href="https://www.etsi.org/technologies/lawful-interception">European Telecommunications Standards Institute</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Up6krCJcXH0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How lawful interception works.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Law-enforcement agencies may <a href="https://lims.utimaco.com/how-lawful-interception-activities-support-leas/">require</a> service providers to hand over copies of communications data, decrypted data, or intercepted data without notifying users. Service providers may also have to make available analytical tools such as graphs or charts of target behaviours.</p>
<h2>What are the privacy concerns?</h2>
<p>The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and others have also <a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/engage-with-us/submissions/surveillance-legislation-amendment-identify-and-disrupt-bill-2020-submission-to-the-parliamentary-joint-committee-on-intelligence-and-security/">raised privacy concerns</a>. The bill may impact third parties who are not suspected in the investigation of criminal activities. In particular, the bill can authorise access to third party computers, communication and data. </p>
<p>The Human Rights Law Centre argues the proposed broad powers can <a href="https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2021/8/25/insufficient-safeguards-in-new-surveillance-law">potentially compel</a> any individual with relevant knowledge of the targeted computer or network to conduct hacking activities. In some cases this may clash with an individual’s right to freedom from self-incrimination. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-worlds-biggest-dark-web-platform-spreads-millions-of-items-of-child-sex-abuse-material-and-why-its-hard-to-stop-167107">How the world's biggest dark web platform spreads millions of items of child sex abuse material — and why it's hard to stop</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Enabling law enforcement agencies to modify potential evidence in a criminal proceeding is also a major issue of concern. The detection and prevention of inappropriate data disruption will be a key issue. </p>
<p>The implementation of the new warrants needs to be in line with <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A03712">Privacy Act 1988</a> which was introduced to promote and protect the privacy of individuals and to regulate Australian government agencies and organisations. Where some agencies may have exemption against the Privacy Act, it is important to <a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/the-privacy-act/">balance</a> between public safety and <a href="https://www.natlawreview.com/article/even-hacking-field-government-surveillance-bill-passed-parliament">privacy impacts</a>.</p>
<h2>What are the security issues and impacts?</h2>
<p>The Identify and Disrupt Bill is a part of an extensive set of Australian digital surveillance laws, including the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018 (TOLA), and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015 (the Mandatory Metadata Retention Scheme).</p>
<p>Under the Identify and Disrupt Bill, access can be gained to encrypted data which could be copied, deleted, modified, and analysed even before its relevance can be determined. This significantly compromises users’ privacy and digital rights. </p>
<p>Modern encryption can be very hard to crack, so hackers often exploit other vulnerabilities in a system to gain access to unencrypted data. Governments too are reportedly <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/583137/IPOL_STU(2017)583137_EN.pdf">using these vulnerabilities</a> for their own lawful hacking.</p>
<p>Specifically, they depend on “<a href="https://www.fireeye.com/current-threats/what-is-a-zero-day-exploit.html">zero-day exploits</a>”, which use software vulnerabilities that are unknown to software vendors or developers, to hack into a system. These vulnerabilities could be exploited for months or even years before they are patched. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-botnet-to-malware-a-guide-to-decoding-cybersecurity-buzzwords-77958">From botnet to malware: a guide to decoding cybersecurity buzzwords</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A conflict of interest may arise if law enforcement agencies are using zero-day exploits for lawful hacking. To protect citizens, we would expect these agencies to report or disclose any software vulnerabilities they discover to the software manufacturers so the weakness can be patched. </p>
<p>However, they may instead choose not to report them and use the vulnerabilities for their own hacking. This puts users at risk, as any third party, including criminal organisations, could exploit these so-called zero day vulnerabilities.</p>
<p>It’s not an abstract concern. In 2016, the CIA’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/elite-cia-unit-that-developed-hacking-tools-failed-to-secure-its-own-systems-allowing-massive-leak-an-internal-report-found/2020/06/15/502e3456-ae9d-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html">secret stash of hacking tools</a> itself was stolen and published, highlighting the risk of these activities. The Chinese government has claimed the CIA was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51736410">hacking targets in China</a> for more than a decade using these and similar tools.</p>
<p>Government use of hacking tools may result in worse cyber security overall. The warrant powers given to Australian law enforcement agencies may protect public safety and national interests, but they may also provide powerful means for adversaries to access government data. </p>
<p>This includes the data and online accounts of targeted individuals like state officials, which may significantly impact national security. This possibility needs to be considered in light of the passing of the new bill.</p>
<p>Whilst the justification of the bill for public safety over personal privacy can be debatable, there is no doubt that the security aspects should not be undermined.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sweeping police powers for online surveillance and hacking raise concerns over privacy and security.James Jin Kang, Lecturer, Computing and Security, Edith Cowan UniversityJumana Abu-Khalaf, Research Fellow in Computing and Security, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1649942021-08-13T12:26:10Z2021-08-13T12:26:10ZThe aching red: Firefighters often silently suffer from trauma and job-related stress<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415589/original/file-20210811-13-z6z0us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=241%2C607%2C4173%2C2773&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Firefighters regularly face scenes of loss and suffering.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/silhouette-firefighter-standing-by-bonfire-at-night-royalty-free-image/1164532738?adppopup=true"> Mike Dohmen/EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Matthew was exposed to unimaginable scenes of pain and suffering in his job over more than a decade as a firefighter. The last straw came when he witnessed the death of a teenager – who was the same age as his son – from an overdose.</p>
<p>“The worst part is when you see an infant or a child die,” he told me during a visit. “Exposure to their family’s pain – and that you could not save that life – is very heartbreaking.” Matthew, for whom I’m using a pseudonym to protect his privacy, was being treated at my clinic for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.</p>
<p>Images of tragedy, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/us/california-fires-camp-fire.html">loss of entire communities</a> and the terrible destruction wrought by deadly wildfires in the West have sadly become <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/mental-health-aftermath-california-wildfires/608656/">all too common</a>. But the public hears relatively little about the suffering of the firefighters who risk their lives and are away from their families for days and weeks at a time. And though firefighters are primarily recognized for responding to fires, they’re also often among the first to arrive at all other manner of disasters and accidents too, as Matthew’s example shows.</p>
<p>While the choice to become a firefighter often stems from a passion for, and a mindset of, helping others and saving lives, being constantly exposed to death, injury and suffering comes with a cost. Cumulative stressors include the physical toll on the body, long working hours, work-related sleep disturbance and an inability to attend to daily family life. </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UDytFmIAAAAJ&hl=en">a psychiatrist and trauma expert</a> who often works with <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-aching-blue-trauma-stress-and-invisible-wounds-of-those-in-law-enforcement-146539">first responders</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/veterans-refugees-and-victims-of-war-crimes-are-all-vulnerable-to-ptsd-130144">as well as refugees</a> and victims of war crimes. While many people think of firefighters as the happy heroes, the real-life, day-to-day experiences of these heroes can have real consequences for their mental health that remain largely invisible to the public eye.</p>
<h2>The life of a firefighter</h2>
<p>Firefighters have their own family-like “culture” and lifestyle, and they have experiences that often only their peers can relate to. Teams often spend whole 24-hour shifts together for years – even decades – and share holiday meals together when they can’t be with their own families.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415694/original/file-20210811-17-gju6ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Firefighters dressed in uniforms, talking at fire station" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415694/original/file-20210811-17-gju6ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415694/original/file-20210811-17-gju6ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415694/original/file-20210811-17-gju6ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415694/original/file-20210811-17-gju6ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415694/original/file-20210811-17-gju6ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415694/original/file-20210811-17-gju6ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415694/original/file-20210811-17-gju6ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Firefighters spend long shifts together and tend to form close-knit bonds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/firefighters-in-uniform-talking-while-standing-at-royalty-free-image/1180594729?adppopup=true">Maskot/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recently, when I spent time with a firefighter team in Dearborn, Michigan, one of the firefighters who was of German descent made a full German dinner, complete with schnitzel, sauerkraut, potatoes and dessert. When I sat at my assigned seat waiting for others to join, the firefighter sitting next to me said, “If you wait, you might never be able to eat your dinner.” Sure enough, five minutes later we had to go out on a call. During the ride, I reflected on how stressful it is to drive at high speeds to a potential disaster where you will have to problem-solve to save a life – or fail at doing so. </p>
<p>The life of a firefighter requires a frequent and immediate switch from laid-back life at the station to racing to unimaginable scenes that could involve anything from a light car accident to horrible car crashes, where first responders have to pull people or bodies from crushed or burning cars.</p>
<p>Exposure to tragic scenes – and the associated risks to firefighters’ lives or their colleagues’ – is a routine part of this job. Often, firefighters are re-exposed to these traumatic experiences via stories in the media or through videos and other posts by bystanders on social media. During the ride along, one firefighter said of this re-exposure, “You see it on all the local TV channels, along with the frequent updates.” </p>
<h2>Mental health impacts of stress and trauma</h2>
<p>PTSD is a condition caused by <a href="https://theconversation.com/veterans-refugees-and-victims-of-war-crimes-are-all-vulnerable-to-ptsd-130144">exposure to traumatic experiences</a> such as natural disasters, war, shootings, motor vehicle accidents and assault. It can result from one’s personal exposure to a trauma, or to someone else’s exposure.</p>
<p>More often, people have heard about PTSD in the context of war, with combat-exposed veterans. While combat veterans often return to the normality of the civilian life after deployment, the job of firefighters, police officers and emergency medical services workers involves regular, routine exposure to all types of traumas, for years and decades of their careers. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2006.8.4/jbremner">PTSD brain</a> is constantly on alert, screening for danger. Symptoms of PTSD include frequent nightmares, flashbacks, avoiding reminders of trauma and being easily startled and angered. Research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037//1076-8998.4.2.131">20% of firefighters and other first responders</a> pass the diagnostic threshold for PTSD at some point in their career, <a href="https://www.iaffrecoverycenter.com/blog/trauma-firefighting-and-ptsd/">in comparison with 6.8%</a> <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/essentials/epidemiology.asp">in the general population</a>. A higher number of first responders experience symptoms that do not meet full diagnostic criteria for PTSD. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/dtac/supplementalresearchbulletin-firstresponders-may2018.pdf">Other consequences</a> of cumulative trauma exposure include depression, anxiety, substance use and suicide, all of which are more common among firefighters and other first responders than in the general population. <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/dtac/supplementalresearchbulletin-firstresponders-may2018.pdf">Alcohol use</a> often becomes a coping mechanism. A recent study found that more firefighters and police officers <a href="https://rudermanfoundation.org/white_papers/police-officers-and-firefighters-are-more-likely-to-die-by-suicide-than-in-line-of-duty/">die by suicide</a> than in the line of duty. </p>
<h2>The challenges and solutions</h2>
<p>The problem-solving and “being in charge” work attitude that is a strength of firefighters can sometimes become a barrier in seeking help, as they might see vulnerability as a sign of failure. Often I have heard from first responders the feeling of shame and worries that others might see them as weak for discussing these issues. First responders sometimes tell us that they can have a hard time trusting mental health providers, some of whom might not have much firsthand experience with understanding a first responder’s life and challenges. Firefighters often also find it impossible to share their tough work experiences with their families. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412888/original/file-20210723-17-18awme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Firefighters and police offers move truck at crash scene" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412888/original/file-20210723-17-18awme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412888/original/file-20210723-17-18awme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412888/original/file-20210723-17-18awme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412888/original/file-20210723-17-18awme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412888/original/file-20210723-17-18awme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412888/original/file-20210723-17-18awme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412888/original/file-20210723-17-18awme.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Problem-solving and teamwork are a big part of a first responder’s job. Here, firefighters and police officers help move a car at a crash scene in Dearborn, Michigan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arash Javanbakht</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Left unaddressed, trauma and chronic stress can lead to not only mental health consequences but also <a href="https://theconversation.com/howard-stern-talks-childhood-trauma-and-a-trauma-psychiatrist-talks-about-its-lasting-effects-118027">physical illness</a>, including diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, obesity and chronic pain.</p>
<h2>Steps forward</h2>
<p>Fortunately, serious efforts are being made to spread awareness and fight stigma related to mental health. <a href="https://www.iaffrecoverycenter.com/blog/peer-support-combat-addiction-ptsd/">Peer-support programs</a> are made available to first responders to provide empathetic support and to encourage those in need to seek mental health care. Such programs can help fight stigma by explaining the mechanisms of trauma and stress in the body and brain. This approach can also reframe these experiences as vulnerabilities rather than weaknesses. The “don’t quit” mentality of firefighters can be shifted toward encouraging fighting the mental health consequences of trauma, instead of avoiding and denying it. </p>
<p>There are a growing number of effective treatments and interventions for addressing PTSD, depression and substance use, including <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand_tx/talk_therapy.asp">talk therapy</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/health/life-you-evolved-for-partner/index.html">lifestyle changes</a> and safe <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand_tx/meds_for_ptsd.asp">medications</a>. Knowing that the consequences of trauma can be resolved by proper interventions also helps reduce the stigma that can sometimes be associated with mental health problems. This can lead to the mindset that PTSD is a treatable condition rather than a label to live with for the rest of one’s life.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YO9WjwWD7_0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers are using novel approaches to trauma therapy, including augmented reality, to help first responders, civilians and others heal and improve their well-being.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other comprehensive programs are underway nationwide, dedicating resources to providing education, support, prevention and intervention for first responders and their families. <a href="https://today.wayne.edu/medicine/news/2021/03/04/wsu-psychiatry-developing-statewide-mental-health-program-to-address-stress-among-first-responders-and-their-families-41646">One such initiative</a>, which involves <a href="https://psychiatry.med.wayne.edu">my department</a> and <a href="https://www.starclab.org">my research clinic</a>, recently started at Wayne State University with the support of the state of Michigan. This program aims to provide education, prevention, peer support and a statewide network of mental health providers familiar with specific challenges of first responders. We are also developing novel methods for trauma treatment using cutting-edge augmented reality and telemedicine technologies.</p>
<p>Having worked with hundreds of civilians and first responders with trauma over more than a decade, I have time and again seen people recover from PTSD and depression and successfully return to a thriving career and family life. I have high hopes that we can help create awareness and, ultimately, improve the lives and well-being of many first responders.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164994/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arash Javanbakht does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Firefighters are hailed as heroes and pillars of strength, bravery and courage. But the daily stressors and traumas of their jobs take a heavy emotional toll that largely goes unnoticed by the public.Arash Javanbakht, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1633272021-08-12T12:28:02Z2021-08-12T12:28:02Z5 issues that could affect the future of campus police<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415718/original/file-20210811-21-rv9dxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C7178%2C4677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Campus police have been accused of biased practices. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-national-guard-along-with-university-police-news-photo/1213723784?adppopup=true">John Paraskevas/Newsday RM vis Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the May 2020 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html">murder of George Floyd</a> at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, much of the attention on police reform has been <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/killings-by-police-declined-after-black-lives-matter-protests1/">directed at municipal police departments</a>. But there has also been a noticeable uptick in protests against the practices of campus police. </p>
<p>Protests have occurred at, among other schools, <a href="https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/students-call-on-yale-to-defund-campus-police-department/">Yale University</a>, <a href="https://news.wttw.com/2020/09/06/university-chicago-students-end-7-day-occupation-outside-provost-home">the University of Chicago</a>, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-hopkins-police-20210305-xgs7434erbbpzgfhj3p7yxeoz4-story.html">Johns Hopkins University</a>, the <a href="https://www.startribune.com/tension-escalates-between-university-of-minnesota-student-leaders-campus-police/600051740/">University of Minnesota</a> and various campuses of the <a href="https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/05/04/california-university-students-employees-demand-removal-of-campus-police/">University of California system</a>. </p>
<p>The protests have been fueled by evidence of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/15/one-police-call-lasting-damage-smith">racial profiling</a>, <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/university-cops-face-renewed-scrutiny-amid-protests-against-police-brutality/">excessive force</a>, <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/scholars-under-surveillance-how-campus-police-use-high-tech-spy-students">improper surveillance</a> and allowing <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/how-police-can-stop-being-weaponized-bias-motivated">racial stereotypes</a> in 911 calls to influence officer responses. </p>
<p>Protesters have demanded that schools undertake major <a href="https://www.pdx.edu/president/reimagining-campus-public-safety">reforms</a> of their campus police departments. Others have called on schools to <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/defund-campus-police.html">defund</a> their police. Still others have demanded <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-we-should-abolish-campus-police">abolishing</a> campus police altogether. </p>
<p>To understand this state of affairs, it helps to first understand the creation and evolution of campus policing.</p>
<h2>Police on college campuses</h2>
<p>Sworn and armed police officers on college campuses have existed since Yale <a href="https://thebscblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/a-seminal-moment-for-americas-campus-police/">hired two officers</a> from the New Haven Police Department in 1894. Their duties included patrolling campus and protecting life and property. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that campus police as they exist today first appeared.</p>
<p>These early departments were often <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/8966NCJRS.pdf">commanded by</a> former deputy chiefs or precinct commanders of police departments in major cities. That pattern continues <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/07/27/johns-hopkins-campus-police-private/">today</a>. Campus police departments also follow the <a href="https://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/standard-model-policing-tactics/">“standard model”</a> of policing typically used by city police in which campus officers wear uniforms, take an oath to protect and serve, and carry handguns.</p>
<p>Having studied campus police since 1992, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cmMlCVkAAAAJ&hl=en">my research and experience</a> lead me to believe there are currently five issues campus police chiefs and university presidents could address to prevent further student unrest.</p>
<h2>1. Legitimacy</h2>
<p>Many of the student protests have raised questions about the <a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article237068524.html">legitimacy</a> of campus police. That is, <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TL261/better-policing-toolkit/all-strategies/legitimacy-policing/in-depth.html">they are questioning</a> the very existence of campus police.</p>
<p>Initially, legitimacy for campus police rested with the fact that they were supposed to be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/12/10/new-style-of-police-training-aims-to-produce-guardians-not-warriors/">guardians</a> of the campus community. However, almost from the beginning, the ideal of campus police officers as guardians failed to gain traction. Students, campus visitors and even other police officers expressed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0032258X20906859">skepticism</a> about whether campus police had the same authority as real police.</p>
<p>To remedy this, during the 1980s and 1990s, new campus officers began to train at the <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED272039">same academies</a> as regular officers. They were also armed with the same weapons and tools, including handguns, <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/181655.pdf">pepper spray</a>, batons, handcuffs and walkie-talkies.</p>
<p>This strategy, however, ran into problems when the legitimacy of regular police <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-legitimacy-how-it-can-be-regained-once-lost-144154">came under fire</a>. This was especially true after the murder of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html">Floyd</a> by Minneapolis police officer <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/us/derek-chauvin-sentencing-george-floyd/index.html">Derek Chauvin</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Militarization</h2>
<p>Some colleges have also tapped into an effort to take surplus military equipment from the U.S. government – giving rise to what some <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/885942130/militarization-of-police-means-u-s-protesters-face-weapons-designed-for-war">critics have described</a> as <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/radley-balko/rise-of-the-warrior-cop/9781610392129/">the rise</a> of a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3096870">warrior</a>” persona among campus police. </p>
<p>Specifically, campus police <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/184523/">departments</a> have been taking advantage of the U.S. Defense Department’s <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-hand-me-downs-militarize-police-1033-program/">1033 Program</a>. Created as part of 1997’s <a href="https://justfacts.votesmart.org/bill/2780/8182/national-defense-authorization-act-for-fiscal-year-1997">National Defense Authorization Act</a>, the 1033 Program allows the Defense Department to legally dispose of surplus equipment by giving it to local authorities, including police agencies. </p>
<p>Since the program’s inception, over <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/12/police-departments-1033-military-equipment-weapons/">$7 billion worth of equipment</a> has been transferred to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies, including campus police departments at <a href="https://www.thelantern.com/2013/09/ohio-state-university-police-bring-in-military-vehicle/">The Ohio State University</a> and the <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/the-university-of-central-florida-has-a-grenade-launcher-and-florida/2198069/">University of Central Florida</a>. </p>
<p>Scholarly evidence shows <a href="https://news.emory.edu/stories/2020/12/er_military_equipment_police_crime/campus.html">little effect</a> of such equipment on crime levels either on or off campus. Instead, the evidence shows <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/19412116">negative impacts</a> of this equipment on citizen perceptions of, and trust in, police. This includes campus officers.</p>
<h2>3. Transparency</h2>
<p>Unlike their municipal counterparts, campus police – particularly those at private schools – may not have to release formal records of officer encounters with citizens. For example, <a href="https://www.policedatainitiative.org/datasets/incidents/">police incident reports</a> that include such information as the circumstances of the encounter are official records of the agency and stored in its records management system. Since these records may be <a href="https://splc.org/2008/03/sunshine-week-when-requesting-campus-crime-records-responses-vary-widely/">difficult to obtain</a> from campus police departments, tracking the outcomes of officer encounters with students and others may be difficult.</p>
<p>A 2016 <a href="https://splc.org/2016/03/private-campus-police-forces/">review</a> by the Student Press Law Center found that Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia were the only states that had enacted legislation requiring public disclosure of police incident reports by private police departments sanctioned by the state. Additionally, agency processes and procedures for addressing complaints filed against officers are often <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2020/07/15/487647/4-actions-colleges-can-take-address-police-brutality/">difficult to obtain</a>. This makes it harder for citizens to file complaints against campus officers.</p>
<h2>4. ‘Mission creep’</h2>
<p>“Mission creep” refers to the gradual geographical expansion of an intervention, project or mission beyond its original scope. Often used by the <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/u-s-mission-creep-in-afghanistan-led-to-unwinnable-never-ending-war-confidential-documents-show/">military</a>, the term describes reasons for countries becoming involved in conflicts longer than originally planned. In the case of campus police, mission creep refers to the fact that officers’ <a href="https://www.police1.com/police-jobs-and-careers/articles/college-police-forces-increasingly-expand-jurisdiction-Wmunbm1YTJE5x9M5/">jurisdictional boundaries</a> are increasingly extending well beyond campus into surrounding areas. </p>
<p>Through <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+sum+HB965S">mutual aid agreements</a>, local municipalities give campus police legal authority to patrol off-campus locations and render assistance to local police as needed. As a result, campus police now patrol areas well outside the physical boundaries of their campus, in communities where residents may not know who the officers are or why they are in the neighborhood. This is a situation ripe for <a href="https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2020/6/28/university-must-disband-private-police-force/">conflict</a>.</p>
<h2>5. Training</h2>
<p>New campus officers must first complete <a href="https://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/handle/1951/70612">basic law enforcement training</a> before being allowed to undertake their duties. </p>
<p>This training involves on average of 800 or more contact hours at one of nearly 700 police academies in the U.S. The focus of this training is across several “core” areas: operations, weapons and defensive tactics, self improvement and <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/Publications/cops-p157-pub.pdf">community-oriented policing</a>, a practice where community members partner with police to come up with solutions to fight crime.</p>
<p>However, it is not unusual for training in operations and weapons or defensive tactics to encompass more than 60% of total training hours, compared to training in community-oriented policing that constitutes only about 10% of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F10986111211013311">total hours</a>. Thus, what’s being stressed in the training campus officers receive are <a href="https://thebscblog.wordpress.com/page/4/">traditional law enforcement</a> tools and tactics, rather than conflict deescalation, professional ethics, community partnerships, communication and problem solving.</p>
<h2>Areas for reform</h2>
<p>That many of the same criticisms being leveled at the police more broadly are also being leveled against campus police creates opportunities for both. For campus police, there are <a href="https://universitybusiness.com/reform-campus-police-uc-davis-binghamton-protests-george-floyd/">solutions</a>. For example, campus police departments can make themselves more transparent and their officers more accountable. They can remove military-grade weapons and equipment from their arsenals to help change their “warrior” image. </p>
<p>Departments can also emphasize that their officers be guided by the principles of <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/prodceduraljustice">procedural justice</a> during interactions with citizens to ensure fairness, grant citizens a voice and ensure that officers don’t make biased decisions.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Ending mutual aid agreements can reverse campus departments’ ever-expanding jurisdictional boundaries and help reduce officer conflict with citizens in communities beyond campus. </p>
<p>In my opinion, reforms like these will transform not only how campus police “serve and protect” but dramatically enhance citizen perceptions of their legitimacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John J Sloan, III has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Community Oriented Policing, and the National Institute of Justice. </span></em></p>As college students seek reform of campus police, a scholar outlines five issues that warrant the most attention.John J. Sloan III, Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice and Sociology, University of Alabama at BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1644992021-07-14T12:17:07Z2021-07-14T12:17:07ZUnrest is being used to subvert South Africa’s democracy: giving in is not an option<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411208/original/file-20210714-21-11w1gzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Looters grab items from a vandalised mall in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/looting-violence-grips-south-africa-after-zuma-court-hearing-2021-07-13/">mayhem</a> of the last few days is a reminder of the danger that South Africa continues to live with, as well as an indication of the disfigurement of its law enforcement institutions. </p>
<p>The danger stems from the deferral of a “<a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/the-ancs-1994-election-manifesto">better life for all</a>” which the governing African National Congress promised when apartheid ended, while the crisis in law enforcement institutions is born of a sinister motive to evade accountability. The poor will emerge worse off, and the bandits are hoping for state institutions too weakened to dispossess them of their bounty and throw them into prison.</p>
<p>Failure to stop former president Jacob Zuma’s incarceration has led to where the country is. This is not an unavoidable result, but the fruition of a calculated strategy – call it “Plan B”. Zuma zealots had hoped their <a href="https://www.news24.com/witness/politics/mkmva-stands-firm-on-civil-unrest-threats-if-zuma-is-arrested-20210706">threats of a violent breakout</a> would scare off the police from arresting him, thereby forcing the authorities to hatch some arrangement that would keep him out of prison.</p>
<p>Once the threats proved hollow, which led to Zuma being jailed, the plan morphed to inciting <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57797007">lawlessness</a>. The intention is to inflict sufficient harm on property and sources of livelihood and instil fear of widespread loss of life to a point where the authorities regret the decision to proceed with Zuma’s incarceration.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/historic-moment-as-constitutional-court-finds-zuma-guilty-and-sentences-him-to-jail-163612">Historic moment as Constitutional Court finds Zuma guilty and sentences him to jail</a>
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<p>For their destructive plans, Zuma’s fanatics found willing accomplices among the hungry, the underworld and petty thieves looking to feed a drug habit. And criminality is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-turn-the-tide-against-south-africas-crime-wave-131839">not unusual in South Africa</a>. It makes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/world/africa/cape-town-crime-military.html">global headlines</a>, now and then. </p>
<h2>Not unexpected</h2>
<p>The looting and violence is not unexpected for a country with the kind of social ills South Africa faces. For instance, of those who’re able to work, between the ages 15 and 65 years, <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=14415">43% can’t find jobs</a>. About two-thirds of the unemployed are youthful, below the age of 34. Most may never find jobs in their lifetime. They are school dropouts without <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-worsened-south-africas-system-of-developing-the-skills-of-young-people-162528">any skills to sell in the labour market</a>.</p>
<p>Faced with dim prospects of finding jobs and without much to do, these unemployable youngsters have taken to drugs to soothe their misery and to criminality as a source of livelihood. Drug abuse has emerged recently as the most worrying problem among <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-outputs/view/5058">the country’s youth</a>. It has predisposed them even more to criminality. </p>
<p>What’s happening now also can’t possibly come as a surprise because of poor police visibility. Police absence has emboldened some. These are the hungry in South African society, but they have remained obedient and fearful of imprisonment. Given the unlikeliness of arrest in this climate, the usually timid have decided to join the looting frenzy. And, though it may not be their first choice, they all possibly feel entitled to steal to assuage hunger.</p>
<p>That is the social deprivation that Zuma’s devotees are successfully exploiting. One can’t rule out the possibility that these marauding mobs have been initially encouraged, or bussed, to loot. It’s not unusual for leaders of the governing African National Congress to enlist the help of the underworld, including for <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-fails-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-killings-in-kwazulu-natal-128167">murder of their own comrades</a>. </p>
<p>Once orchestrated, the looting and destruction frenzy took on a life of its own. But the aim of those involved is not just wanton destruction and to raise the spectre of mob attacks. Zuma devotees remained focused on freeing their cult-figure. They’re blaming the judiciary for the chaos, saying the jurists have taken an irresponsible decision. Their goal is to discredit the judiciary to justify making a deal that would <a href="https://www.news24.com/witness/news/pietermaritzburg/we-are-mobilising-to-get-zuma-released-20210709">free Zuma from punishment</a>.</p>
<h2>The question of a political pardon</h2>
<p>A political pardon, especially under these circumstances, would set this country down a potentially irreversible path. It would mean that all the guilty need to do to avoid accountability is to threaten violence. That would mean Zuma would never be punished for accumulated <a href="https://theconversation.com/president-zuma-loses-bid-to-dodge-criminal-charges-but-will-he-have-the-last-laugh-85703">allegations of corruption</a>. </p>
<p>If he managed to force a pardon now, who says he wouldn’t employ violence the next time he faced jail time? There’s a real possibility that Zuma will go back to prison. He’s currently <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/17/new-delay-in-south-africa-ex-president-jacob-zuma-corruption-trial">going through a trial</a>, and evidence of his impropriety is piling up at the Zondo commission probing allegations of <a href="https://www.sastatecapture.org.za/">state capture and corruption</a>. </p>
<p>If the state pardons Zuma now, it’s effectively saying he enjoys indemnity from prosecution, regardless of how severe his improprieties are. Once that happens, South Africa will lose any claim to being a country governed by the rule of law. It would pave the way for the proliferation of militia forces and mobs organised by strong-men to threaten law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>Countries don’t renounce the rule of law on account of a mere refusal to comply. The idea is to enforce the law. That is why the police and prosecutors are called <a href="https://www.gov.za/about-sa/police-and-defence">law enforcement agencies</a>. </p>
<p>But South Africa is faced with a dreadful failure of law enforcement, resulting from sheer failure to detect the likelihood of the current mayhem. Imprisonment of any heroic figure, especially one who encourages his zealots to break the law, is likely to incite chaos. The likelihood of that happening is even greater in a country with deep grievances like South Africa. </p>
<p>How the country’s <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-14-south-africas-tipping-point-how-the-intelligence-community-failed-the-country/">intelligence could not have foreseen</a> this is inexplicable. Either they’re hopelessly inept, or they have simply deserted their posts and left the country exposed to internal threats.</p>
<h2>Major setback</h2>
<p>The current chaos has set the country back. More people have possibly been infected by COVID-19 due to failure to observe preventative measures. Even more deaths are likely to follow because of the <a href="https://sacoronavirus.co.za/2021/07/13/media-release-impact-of-violent-protests-on-health-services/">disruption of the vaccination programme</a> and lack of staff at hospitals for fear of violent attacks by the mob.</p>
<p>This will add to the already high number of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235941788_Child-headed_households_in_South_Africa_The_legal_and_ethical_implications_when_children_are_the_primary_caregivers_in_a_therapeutic_relationship">child-headed households in the country</a>. Destruction of businesses will lead to a multiplication of unemployment, which is unlikely to decrease any time soon as business people remain uncertain about the return of law and order. This means criminality is likely to rise even more.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jacob-zuma-isnt-a-man-with-a-cause-just-a-wily-politician-trying-to-evade-the-law-163660">Jacob Zuma isn't a man with a cause. Just a wily politician trying to evade the law</a>
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<p>South Africa can’t possibly remain the same country in the aftermath of this mayhem. There are just too many storms ahead to simply continue unchanged. State institutions need to rid themselves of people who are not proving their worth. Their retention is truly reckless.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2021-05-21-inequality-in-south-africa-is-a-ticking-timebomb">ticking bomb</a>” in South Africa does actually have the potential to explode. Mere promises of a better life are not enough to disarm the bomb. Malfeasant elements within the governing party are determined to take the entire country down with them. South Africans can’t say they have not been warned.</p>
<p><em>Mcebisi Ndletyana is the author of Anatomy of the ANC in Power: Insights from Port Elizabeth, 1990 - 2019 (HSRC Press, 2020)</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mcebisi Ndletyana receives funding from the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences.</span></em></p>South Africa can’t possibly remain the same country in the aftermath of this mayhem. There are just too many storms ahead to simply continue unchanged.Mcebisi Ndletyana, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1619772021-06-29T12:05:54Z2021-06-29T12:05:54ZDefund the police? Actually, police salaries are rising in departments across the United States<p>Police work can be one of the best-paid professions in the United States.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/police-and-detectives.htm">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, the 2020 median salary for a police officer was US$67,290 – more than one-third higher than the national median of $48,769 for all occupations. Many officers probably earn much more, because the bureau’s analysis is based on hourly wages for a typical work year of 2,080 hours and does not include overtime – one of the factors that can drive an officer’s yearly income even higher.</p>
<p>Although there is a great deal of variation across the nation’s <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/nsleed.pdf">roughly 18,000 police departments</a>, the agency also reports that salaries for police have largely climbed in the past five years – from an 8.8% increase in Mississippi, the state that overall pays its police the least, to a 21% increase in Hawaii, one of the best-paying states.</p>
<p>While efforts to control police budgets have succeeded in Austin, Denver and Oakland, among others, the Biden administration <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/23/1009281690/the-white-house-announces-new-steps-to-try-to-curb-surging-gun-violence">recently announced that</a> COVID-19 relief funds can be used to hire police officers to combat the rise in gun violence. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/sociology/bio/?who=laurie-woods">a former police officer who studies policing in America</a>, I think it is unlikely that police salaries can go anywhere but up. </p>
<h2>Police salaries are inching up</h2>
<p>Just look at the trends across the U.S.</p>
<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics published <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333051.htm#st">the mean salaries for police officers</a> in all states plus the District of Columbia for the year 2018.</p>
<p>Somewhat predictably due to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/09/13/cheat-sheet-most-expensive-states/15455129/">cost of living</a>, California topped the list at $101,380, followed by Alaska at $88,030, where the cost of living also drives salaries higher. New Jersey, Washington state and Hawaii round out the top five. </p>
<p>All of the 10 departments with the lowest-paid officers are located in the South, where Mississippi police officers earn slightly more than one-third of their California counterparts. </p>
<p>Large cities clearly offer higher wages to their police officers, as do some cities surrounding large metropolitan areas. The Los Angeles Police Department currently advertises a starting salary of <a href="https://www.joinlapd.com/salary">$70,804 a year</a>. That’s up from the 2015 starting <a href="https://per.lacity.org/psb/lapd_salary.htm">annual salary of $59,717</a> – an 18.5% increase over just six years.</p>
<p>Starting salary for police officers in Baltimore is $55,117, with a seasoned officer earning <a href="https://www.baltimorepolice.org/careers/sworn-careers">$95,325, base salary alone</a>. Seattle officers earn $83,600 once they’ve completed their basic academy training and top out at $109,512 after 54 months, not including overtime. <a href="https://crosscut.com/2018/10/details-and-critics-emerge-new-seattle-police-contract">Seattle even agreed to pay</a> its officers an extra 2% for <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/police/police-jobs/salary-and-benefits#income">wearing body cameras</a>. </p>
<p>Larger, better-paying police departments attract officers from smaller departments by offering more pay and better training for experienced officers. This often leaves a void that small agencies struggle to fill with qualified candidates. </p>
<p>There are three main drivers of police take-home pay: overtime, education and competition.</p>
<h2>1. Overtime</h2>
<p>In his recent trial for the murder of George Floyd, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was represented by an attorney paid for by his union, the Minneapolis Police Federation. This benefit is only a small part of <a href="https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/media/content-assets/www2-documents/departments/wcmsp-200131.pdf">the union’s 128-page labor agreement with the city</a>, which details salaries, vacation, sick leave, medical insurance, grievance procedures and, in particular, overtime pay. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white man wearing a gray suit and a blue mask listens to an unseen speaker" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison on June 25, 2021, for the death of George Floyd. His defense was part of his compensation as a Minneapolis police officer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GeorgeFloydOfficerTrial/7bfdcc4f5b974bb2865b5984b771180a/photo?Query=Chauvin&mediaType=photo,graphic&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1617&currentItemNo=39">Court TV via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reportedly, <a href="https://govsalaries.com/chauvin-derek-m-30649148">Derek Chauvin’s 2018 salary was $90,612</a>, more than twice the average Minneapolis <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/minneapoliscityminnesota/INC910219#INC910219">per capita income of $38,808 in 2019</a>. But it is overtime rather than base salaries that drives up officers’ total compensation.</p>
<p>Across the country, police officers typically receive “time and a half” for every hour worked beyond the standard 40-hour week, meaning a pay rate that combines their regular hourly rate plus an additional 50%. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.checkthepolice.org/database">Most union agreements</a> also stipulate higher pay for other work deemed “overtime,” such as off-duty court appearances. They also stipulate other after-hours pay boosts, such as a minimum of four hours’ pay for officers called back to duty for any reason. </p>
<p>In practice, these extra pay arrangements have a huge effect on driving up the size of police budgets. A few examples:</p>
<p>– In Los Angeles, where the second-largest police force in the U.S. boasts salaries of $83,144 after two years of employment plus an annual 1.5% cost-of-living increase, the union recently negotiated $245 million in overtime pay for its officers.</p>
<p>– Boston’s <a href="https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/embed/file/2019-08/bpdbs_cba_july_1_2016_to_june_30_2020.pdf">complex agreement with its police department</a> results in many opportunities for overtime as well as extra payment for special assignments.</p>
<p>City governments typically budget for some police officer overtime, since that extra income does not count toward an officer’s eventual retirement pay and reduces the need to hire additional employees. However, unanticipated events such as national disasters, public demonstrations and political rallies all result in overtime pay for cops that cities must pay whether or not they planned for it:</p>
<p>– Palm Beach, Florida, <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/national-govt--politics/trump-palm-beach-pbso-overtime-bill-feds-and-growing/FPRZCKSkEU8XjULnNtyE9I/">paid $3.26 million in police overtime</a> for former President Donald Trump’s visits to his Mar-a-Lago resort over a period of just 27 days from late 2017 into early 2018. </p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/03/police-departments-have-spent-millions-in-overtime-during-protests/">Demonstrations in the wake of Floyd’s murder</a> cost New York City $115 million in overtime during one two-week period, while Seattle paid $6.3 million during the first 12 days of protests. </p>
<h2>2. Education</h2>
<p>Few local law enforcement agencies require a four-year college degree, but most offer educational incentives that range from a 2% annual salary increase for earning an associate’s degree to 10% for a bachelor’s degree. </p>
<p>For example, since 1970 in Massachusetts, police <a href="https://www.salemstate.edu/academics/college-health-and-human-services/criminal-justice/quinn-bill">receive pay incentives of up to 25%</a> over and above their regular salary for a master’s or law degree. <a href="http://directives.chicagopolice.org/CPDSergeantsExam_2019/directives/data/a7a56e3d-12887ea9-ce512-887e-c625cb562ad2e1d6.html?ownapi=1">The Chicago Police Department</a>, among others, provides tuition reimbursement for college courses, as well as additional incentive pay once a degree is completed.</p>
<p>Such incentives may be a good investment. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611109357325">Research indicates that</a> police officers with college degrees are less likely to use lethal force and are subjects of fewer citizen complaints. Since fewer complaints mean fewer claims to pay and lawsuits to defend, <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-police-officers-should-have-college-degrees-140523">this can ultimately save cities money</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Recruitment</h2>
<p>More police officers are leaving the profession before retirement age, according to <a href="https://www.policeforum.org/assets/WorkforceCrisis.pdf">a 2019 study by the Police Executive Research Forum</a>. The group has also found that the number of applicants for police jobs has steadily declined over the past 10 years. So departments trying to attract new recruits often go beyond tempting salaries by offering incentives like assistance with relocation, housing and childcare, education pay, college tuition reimbursement, health club memberships and employee signing bonuses. </p>
<p>At the New York Police Department, the nation’s largest force, the starting salary is a relatively modest $42,000 a year. But the department highlights on its website that <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/careers/police-officers/po-benefits.page">starting benefits</a> include “holiday pay, longevity pay, uniform allowance, night differential and overtime,” which together with salary can boost annual compensation to more than $100,000. </p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>.]</p>
<p>Even smaller departments are coming up with incentives <a href="https://www.policeforum.org/assets/WorkforceCrisis.pdf">to try and remain competitive</a> with larger agencies that can offer higher salaries, more overtime and more attractive benefits. The police department of Bellmead, Texas, a city of around 10,500 about two hours north of Austin, <a href="https://www.kxxv.com/news/local-news/more-cities-offering-incentives-to-get-best-police-officers">has begun offering experienced officers a $5,000 bonus</a> for signing on to the force.</p>
<p>Another trend to watch: Not only are police salaries rising, but the size of police forces also continues to grow. <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/police-and-detectives.htm">The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts</a> a 5% growth in police jobs from 2019 to 2029, from 813,500 to an estimated 854,200, which is faster on average than other occupations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161977/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurie Woods does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite growing public criticism over how much counties, cities and towns spend on policing, many are increasing officer pay.Laurie Woods, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1574882021-03-19T20:28:05Z2021-03-19T20:28:05ZWhat is a hate crime? The narrow legal definition makes it hard to charge and convict<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390656/original/file-20210319-13-wklc3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5982%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A memorial to the Asian American women gunned down at Gold Spa, in Atlanta, Ga., on March 18, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/flowers-adorn-gold-spa-during-a-demonstration-against-news-photo/1231796509?adppopup=true">Megan Varner/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A white man travels to one business and kills several workers. He then kills more people at a similar business. </p>
<p>Six of the eight people he killed are Asian women, leading many people to call for him to be charged under the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/georgia-hate-crime-law-atlanta-shooting/2021/03/18/d9389578-8824-11eb-8a67-f314e5fcf88d_story.html">new state hate crime law</a>. Authorities resist, saying they aren’t sure that racial bias motivated the man’s crimes.</p>
<p>That’s the situation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth">unfolding in the Atlanta area in Georgia, right now</a>. But there is often a gap between public opinion and law enforcement when people believe a hate crime has been committed, whether against LGBTQ people, racial minorities or Jewish people.</p>
<p>Hate crimes and hate murders are rising across the U.S., but long-term polling data suggests that most Americans are <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/27613/public-favors-expansion-hate-crime-law-include-sexual-orientation.aspx">horrified by bias-motivated violence</a>. They also support hate crime legislation, an effort to deter such attacks.</p>
<p>Yet officials often resist the quick classification of incidents as a hate crime. Hate crimes have precise qualities, which must be met in order to satisfy legal requirements. And even when police and prosecutors believe the elements of a hate crime are present, such crimes can be difficult to prove in court. </p>
<h2>What is a hate crime?</h2>
<p>I have studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NW3t09QAAAAJ&hl=en">hate crime and police for over 20 years</a>.</p>
<p>Hate crimes are crimes motivated by bias on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity. In some states, gender, age and gender identity are also included. Hate crime laws have been passed by 47 states and the federal government since the 1980s, when activists first began to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1389346?seq=1">press state legislatures to recognize the role of bias in violence against minority groups</a>. Today, only Arkansas, South Carolina and Wyoming do not have hate crime laws.</p>
<p>In order to be charged as a hate crime, attacks – whether assault, killings or vandalism – must be directed at individuals because of the prohibited biases. Hate crimes, in other words, punish motive; the prosecutor must convince the judge or jury that the victim was targeted because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or other protected characteristic. </p>
<p>If the defendant is found to have acted with bias motivation, hate crimes often add an additional penalty to the underlying charge. Charging people with a hate crime, then, <a href="https://jhs.press.gonzaga.edu/articles/abstract/10.33972/jhs.34/">presents additional layers of complexity</a> to what may otherwise be a straightforward case for prosecutors. Bias motivation can be hard to prove, and prosecutors can be reluctant to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720210000085003">take cases that that they may not win</a> in court.</p>
<p>It can and does happen, though. In June 2020, Shepard Hoehn placed a burning cross and a sign with racial slurs and epithets facing the construction site where his new neighbor, who is Black, was building a house. </p>
<p>Hoehn was charged with and later pleaded guilty to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/indiana-man-pleads-guilty-hate-crime-making-racially-charged-motivated-threats-toward-black">federal hate crime charges</a> in Indiana. A few months later, Maurice Diggins was convicted by a federal jury of a 2018 hate crime for breaking the jaw of a Sudanese man in Maine <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/maine-man-sentenced-federal-hate-crime-convictions">while shouting racial epithets</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Video still of young blond man in prison jumpsuit surrounded by armed guards" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Dylann Roof, who killed nine worshipers at a Black church in South Carolina in 2015, was convicted of 33 charges, including hate crimes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-image-from-the-video-uplink-from-the-detention-news-photo/477782304?adppopup=true">Grace Beahm-Pool/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>How to charge a hate crime</h2>
<p>The first use of the term “hate crime” in federal legislation was the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/101/hr1048">Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990</a>. This was not a criminal statute but rather a data-gathering requirement that mandated that the U.S. attorney general collect data on crimes that “evidenced prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.” </p>
<p>Soon, states began passing their own laws recognizing bias crimes. But hate crime legislation has not led to as many charges and convictions as activists may have hoped.</p>
<p>Law enforcement struggle to identify hate crime and prosecute the offenders. Even though 47 states have hate crime laws, 86.1% of law enforcement agencies reported to the FBI that not a single hate crime <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/topic-pages/jurisdiction">had occurred in their jurisdiction in 2019</a>, according to the latest FBI data collected.</p>
<p>In many cases, police have received <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/hate-endures-in-america-and-with-it-our-effort-to-document-the-damage">inadequate training</a> in making hate crime classification. </p>
<p>“What weights do you give to race, dope, territory? These things are 90% gray – there are no black-and-white incidents,” said <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3054119?seq=1">one 20-year veteran police officer in a 1996 study of hate crime</a>.</p>
<p>But I’ve also found that police departments are rarely organized in a way that allows them to develop the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207306054">expertise necessary to effectively investigate hate crimes</a>. When police departments have specialized police units and prosecutors who are <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814798973/policing-hatred/">committed to taking on hate crime</a>, they can develop the routines that allow them to investigate hate crime in a manner that supports victims. </p>
<p>In the late 1990s I studied a specialized police hate crime unit in a city I called, for the purposes of anonymity, “Center City.” My study revealed that those detectives could distinguish non-hate crimes – for instance, when the perpetrator angrily used the n-word in a fight – from cases that are truly hate crimes, as when the perpetrator used it during a targeted attack on a Black person. </p>
<p>Without the right training and organizational structure, officers are unclear about common markers of bias motivation, and tend to assume that they must go to extraordinary lengths to figure out why suspects committed the crime. </p>
<p>“We don’t have time to psychoanalyze people,” said the same veteran police officer in 1996.</p>
<p>Even law enforcement officers specifically trained in bias crime identification still may not name incidents as hate crime that, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/hate-endures-in-america-and-with-it-our-effort-to-document-the-damage">to the general public, seem obviously bias-driven</a>. This may be the result of police bias.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fire inspector walks through ruins of a charred building, looking at the ground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">When arson targets a temple, mosque or cultural center, it may be investigated as a hate crime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/houston-fire-department-arson-investigator-inspects-the-news-photo/463382360?adppopup=true">Aaron M. Sprecher/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Limits of the law</h2>
<p>Advocates for hate crime victims maintain that <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/hate-crime-training-for-police-is-often-inadequate-sometimes-nonexistent">police and prosecutors can do much more</a> to identify and punish hate crimes. </p>
<p>Empirical evidence supports their claims. The FBI’s 2019 report contains <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/resource-pages/hate-crime-summary#:%7E:text=Of%20the%205,512%20hate%20crime%20offenses%20classified%20as,commercial%20sex%20acts%20were%20reported%20as%20hate%20crimes.">8,559 bias crimes reported by law enforcement agencies</a>. But in the National Crime Victimization Survey, victims say that they experienced, on average, <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcs1317pp.pdf">more than 200,000 hate crimes each year</a>. This suggests that police are missing many hate crimes that have occurred. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-perceptions-of-police-fall-as-they-age-for-black-children-the-decline-starts-earlier-and-is-constant-145511">Distrust of police</a>, especially in Black communities, may dissuade minorities from even calling the police when they are victimized by hate crime for fear they could also become <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-shootings-and-race-in-america-five-essential-reads-65847">victims of police violence</a>. </p>
<p>All this means that perpetrators of hate crimes may not be caught and can reoffend, further victimizing communities that are meant to be protected by hate crime laws.</p>
<p>Hate crime laws reflect American ideals of fairness, justice and equity. But if crimes motivated by bias aren’t reported, well investigated, charged or brought to trial, it matters little what state law says.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeannine Bell is affiliated with the Law and Society Association, American Law Institute and American Bar Foundation.</span></em></p>Bias-motivated attacks became a distinct crime in the 1980s. But police investigate only a fraction of the roughly 200,000 hate crimes reported each year – and even fewer ever make it to court.Jeannine Bell, Professor of Law, Maurer School of Law, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1532822021-01-20T13:32:16Z2021-01-20T13:32:16ZHow law enforcement is using technology to track down people who attacked the US Capitol building<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379093/original/file-20210115-19-135tm16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5568%2C3700&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many of the people who broke into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 carried cellphones, which can be tracked, and posted photos of their activities on social media.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-of-us-president-donald-trump-enter-the-us-news-photo/1230453071?adppopup=true">Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After rioters flooded the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, there was an immediate call for those who overran officers on the scene and swarmed the House and Senate floors, as well as congressional members’ personal offices, to be identified, arrested and prosecuted. The coordinated law enforcement response to this incident is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/politics/justice-department-capitol-hill-attack/index.html">massive</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cqRzGXkAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FHolthQAAAAJ&hl=en">who study</a> criminal justice, we see that law enforcement agencies are accessing large amounts of information via technological sources to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol building. High-definition security cameras, facial recognition technology, location services acquired from cellphones and third-party apps, and <a href="https://www.axios.com/fbi-capitol-rioters-digital-trail-8cc49291-194c-423c-afda-084391960d8d.html">accessing archival evidence on social media</a> are all used to identify perpetrators of crimes and tie them to specific places and times.</p>
<p>While watchdog groups have raised legitimate concerns about the use of government and private-sector surveillance technology to <a href="https://www.policingproject.org/news-main/2017/9/21/police-should-look-to-the-public-before-they-leap-into-use-of-big-data">identify people who might commit violent acts</a> at some future point, there is much less concern raised about the use of technology to identify, arrest and prosecute individuals once these crimes have occurred.</p>
<h2>Facial recognition technology</h2>
<p>In the days since the breaching of the Capitol, information has flowed continuously to law enforcement with names and/or images of suspected participants in the unrest. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/artificial-intelligence/machine-learning/facial-recognition-and-the-us-capitol-insurrection">Facial recognition technology can be used to compare images</a> obtained by law enforcement – particularly those images taken from the network of security cameras within and outside the Capitol complex – to positively identify persons of interest. </p>
<p>Facial recognition systems work by matching a face in a video or photo with a face in a database that is associated with a person’s name and other identifying information. Beyond using public records, law enforcement agencies have been turning to private companies to access large databases of identified faces. A growing body of evidence shows <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/11/21131991/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-database-law-enforcement">the large amount of data some companies have been collecting</a> from <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-u-s-capitol-investigators-use-facial-recognition-it-begs-the-question-who-owns-our-faces-153253">social media and other publicly available sources</a>, as well as from CCTV systems in public spaces around the globe. Law enforcement agencies can simply purchase the services of these companies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379633/original/file-20210119-13-10ye84n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A security camera mounted on a streetlight pole with the U.S. Capitol dome in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379633/original/file-20210119-13-10ye84n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379633/original/file-20210119-13-10ye84n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379633/original/file-20210119-13-10ye84n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379633/original/file-20210119-13-10ye84n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379633/original/file-20210119-13-10ye84n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379633/original/file-20210119-13-10ye84n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379633/original/file-20210119-13-10ye84n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cameras in public spaces provide surveillance – and contribute to a growing trove of private facial recognition databases available to law enforcement agencies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NSASurveillanceProtest/70ad9d2832c4447f938ac884327dae0c/photo?Query=Washington%20the%20surveillance%20camera&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=28&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The technology exists to identify individuals participating in violent encounters in public spaces in real time using the soon-to-be-completed <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/real-id">national ID</a> database. This could result in some extremist groups going off the grid to avoid identification.</p>
<h2>Sourcing information from social media</h2>
<p>Investigators are being aided by many of the participants in the events of Jan. 6 themselves who posted accounts of their activities on social networks. In addition to the participants who breached the barricades of the Capitol, many bystanders documented the happenings. Social media companies are assisting law enforcement in <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/9/22222200/social-media-telco-urged-preserve-evidence-capitol-attack-twitter-facebook-google-verizon-apple">accessing content that may be useful to locate and prosecute specific individuals</a>. </p>
<p>Some of the earliest subjects who were arrested after the events of Jan. 6 <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/insurrection-at-the-capitol/2021/01/07/954518782/law-enforcement-and-social-media-identifying-u-s-capitol-mob-members">were previously known to law enforcement agencies</a> around the nation, their involvement confirmed by social media postings. Reports have emerged that individuals and groups already under surveillance by law enforcement agencies nationwide via their activity on social media, including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/terror-watchlist-capitol-riot-fbi/2021/01/14/07412814-55f7-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html">suspected white supremacists on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist</a>, were contacted by officers before the individuals traveled to Washington to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally. </p>
<p>Information from social media is also <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/law-enforcement-social-media-monitoring-invasive-and-opaque">assisting authorities in determining the extent of planning among individuals and groups that were involved.</a> </p>
<p>There is some disagreement within the law enforcement community about the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/far-right-investigations-encrypted-fbi/2021/01/17/bd7a71ac-580a-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html">pros and cons of restricting the ability of extremists to communicate</a> on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Parler. The benefit of restricting extremists’ access is hindering communication in the hopes of preventing similar attacks. There is emerging evidence that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/15/parler-telegram-chat-apps/">extremist groups are moving their social media conversations to password-protected sites and to the darknet</a>, where an individual’s anonymity is protected. This migration might hinder extremist groups in recruiting and propaganda efforts, but it’s not clear if it has an effect on the groups’ organizing. </p>
<p>The downside of driving extremists to less-visible online platforms is that it <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/why-deplatforming-might-be-bad-answer-to-right-wing-violence.html">makes it difficult for law enforcement to gather information</a> needed to bring cases against those who participate in criminal incidents. Their virtual footprints become harder to follow. </p>
<h2>Location tracking</h2>
<p>Identifying a person – particularly someone not previously known to law enforcement – is just one piece of evidence needed to issue an arrest warrant. Empirical information that puts the suspect at the location of a crime when that crime occurred often provides the corroboration courts need to issue a warrant. </p>
<p>The vast majority of participants in the Capitol unrest carried mobile devices with them and had them powered on, which makes it possible for law enforcement agencies to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/12/23/police-phone-surveillance-dragnet-cellhawk/">determine the movements</a> of the cellphone’s owner. Even if users have location services, cellular data and Wi-Fi disabled, law enforcement has <a href="https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TMSCS.2017.2751462">access to technology that can determine the location of a device at a specified time</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379634/original/file-20210119-13-zlfmch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People crowded in the U.S. Capitol building rotunda using cell phones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379634/original/file-20210119-13-zlfmch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379634/original/file-20210119-13-zlfmch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379634/original/file-20210119-13-zlfmch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379634/original/file-20210119-13-zlfmch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379634/original/file-20210119-13-zlfmch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379634/original/file-20210119-13-zlfmch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379634/original/file-20210119-13-zlfmch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of the people who broke into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 had cellphones, which law enforcement agencies can use to place people at the scene of the crime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-of-us-president-donald-trump-protest-in-the-us-news-photo/1230453806?adppopup=true">Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But location data is useful only when coupled with other evidence of a subject’s involvement in a criminal incident, such as photos and video. For instance, it is doubtful whether simply being in the vicinity of the Capitol during the unrest is sufficient. <a href="https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/performance/accuracy/">Location data may not be precise enough</a> to discern whether a device was on someone’s person behind previously established barricades outside the Capitol building or if that device was inside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s private office, particularly with thousands of mobile devices clustered in one small geographic space inside structures that can obscure signals.</p>
<h2>Tips from the public</h2>
<p>One aspect of criminal investigations that has not changed with the rise of technological surveillance is the value of information provided by eyewitnesses and associates of individuals suspected of perpetrating crimes. In the days since the storming of the Capitol, many tips have come into law enforcement from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/16/capitol-riot-family-fbi/">friends, relatives</a>, ex-spouses, neighbors, co-workers and others who indicated they either saw images of someone they knew participating in the unrest on television or on social media, heard them boast of their exploits or heard from a third-party that they had participated. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>The FBI, especially, took advantage of the constant media attention on the unrest at the Capitol to ask the public for tips and information, and had established a <a href="https://tips.fbi.gov/digitalmedia/aad18481a3e8f02">hotline</a> to gather this information within hours of the incident. It certainly helps criminal investigations when perpetrators are willing to be recorded and photographed, and when they provide their names, ages and hometowns to reporters. </p>
<p>Technology expands the reach of law enforcement investigations, and, combined with tips from the public, makes it more difficult for participants in mob actions to become lost in the crowd. However, these technologies raise the question of whether they can and should be used in the future to prevent these types of large-scale violent incidents from occurring in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153282/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Facial recognition, social media and location tracking give law enforcement a leg up in a monumental investigation.Don Hummer, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Penn StateJames Byrne, Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1532852021-01-15T20:08:56Z2021-01-15T20:08:56ZTrump supporters seeking more violence could target state capitols during inauguration – here’s how cities can prepare<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379086/original/file-20210115-13-hnm2va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5000%2C3315&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The FBI says armed protests are planned at all 50 state capitols ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/orange-barricades-are-erected-outside-of-the-pennsylvania-news-photo/1230591478?adppopup=true">Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Americans witnessed an alarming and deadly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/us/politics/capitol-siege-security.html">failure in planning and policing</a> at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. </p>
<p>The FBI failed to sound intelligence alarms, including about dozens of targets <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/terror-watchlist-capitol-riot-fbi/2021/01/14/07412814-55f7-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html">on the terrorist watch list</a> traveling to Washington, D.C. </p>
<p>U.S. Park Police, D.C. police and the National Guard, who collectively policed the “Save America” rally that preceded the riot, deviated from common crowd-control techniques by allowing rallygoers to bring flagpoles and other items that were <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/capitol-rioter-beat-dc-officer-with-pole-flying-american-flag/2539161/">later used as weapons</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/us/politics/capitol-siege-security.html">Capitol Police also failed</a> to take seriously threats from white supremacists and other Trump supporters. They lacked <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/Capitol-cops-police.html">contingency planning, proper staffing and adequate equipment</a>.</p>
<p>As an expert on the <a href="https://jearl.faculty.arizona.edu/">policing of protest and political violence in the U.S.</a>, I understand why <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/law-enforcement-officials-across-u-s-shocked-police-failure-stop-n1253193">D.C. agencies are embarrassed</a> by their lapses and feel pressure to take <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/12/congress-security-threats-biden-inauguration">intelligence on threats of violence</a> at President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20 <a href="https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/infrastructure-security/national-special-security-event-operations-for-inauguration-bumped-up-by-6-days/">more seriously</a>. </p>
<p>The inauguration is a <a href="https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/infrastructure-security/national-special-security-event-operations-for-inauguration-bumped-up-by-6-days/">national special-security event</a>, an official designation that means the event gets more resources and interagency planning. </p>
<p>Other cities across the country, however, also face a risk of violence. </p>
<h2>Risks to other cities</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/armed-protests-planned-50-state-capitols-fbi-bulletin/story?id=75179771">FBI says it has intelligence</a> on threats of violence at state capitols throughout the U.S. over the next week. It expanded its warnings to include other <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us/fbi-police-threats-inauguration.html">government buildings and even legislators’ homes</a>. </p>
<p>State capitols were already attacked multiple times in 2020. Armed anti-maskers <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/04/30/armed-protesters-storm-michigan-state-house-over-covid-19-lockdown/?sh=1b4c7d4969b5">stormed the Michigan Statehouse</a> in April to protest COVID-19 safety measures. Right-wing rioters in Oregon, who were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/12/oregon-capitol-riot-mike-nearman/">allegedly let into the Statehouse</a> by a sympathetic legislator, attacked officers and damaged Capitol property. And, of course, there was the foiled plan by members of a white militia to <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/08/feds-thwart-militia-plot-kidnap-michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer/5922301002/">kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer</a> and overthrow the Michigan state government. </p>
<p>These risks outside of D.C. may be heightened by the difficulty for far-right activists and white supremacists to get to D.C. to create what they call their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/politics/republicans-capitol-riot.html">“1776 moment”</a>, which refers to the Declaration of Independence and attempts to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/what-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-said-in-the-lead-up-to-the-capitol-riot/">tie current insurgents to the American Revolution</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/us-capitol-rioters-no-fly-list-travel-ban-fbi-tsa-airlines-1561107">Some legislators</a> have pressed for D.C. rioters to be <a href="https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/election-2020/man-featured-in-viral-video-was-not-placed-on-no-fly-list-for-participating-in-capitol-riot">placed on the no-fly list</a>, which would prevent their commercial air travel in the U.S. <a href="https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-to-block-and-cancel-d-c-reservations-during-inauguration/">Airbnb announced</a> it will cancel and block all D.C.-area reservations for inauguration week.</p>
<p>Other parts of the risk assessment might be less obvious though. </p>
<p>For instance, research by sociologists <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/repression-and-mobilization">Gilda Zwerman and Patricia Steinhoff </a> shows that radical groups experimenting with violence can splinter when the state polices them heavily.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, for example, the <a href="https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3337">New Left</a> – a loose political movement focused on civil rights and opposing war – faced substantial FBI and local policing in the U.S. Students for a Democratic Society, which was known for its anti-war activism, ultimately fractured. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/books/review/Barrett-t.html">Former SDS members</a> helped <a href="https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/weatherunderground/movement.html">create the Weather Underground</a>, which bombed police buildings and other targets. </p>
<p>If the New Left and <a href="https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.5.1.0w068105721660n0">other groups</a> in the U.S., Japan, Germany and Italy are a guide, two things are likely to happen to those who supported the Capitol riot. </p>
<p>One is that Trump supporters who aren’t interested in violence, or simply don’t want to get in trouble, will stop participating in incursions into government buildings and other illegal activities. However, this will leave an echo chamber among those who stay active, supporting a spiral toward further violence.</p>
<p>Second, smaller, very militant pods may escalate their plans or <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/repression-and-mobilization">choose more violent tactics</a>. This would further their sense of being revolutionaries and deepen their bonds to one another as they test their mettle.</p>
<p>Facing off against smaller police agencies that have less experience with crowds or insurgents, and doing it on more familiar terrain, may be attractive for those committed to violence. That’s especially true as public spaces in D.C. are closed off and the area is flooded with National Guard and police.</p>
<h2>How states can prepare</h2>
<p>Law enforcement in states will need to mobilize and share information, expertise and resources to protect lives and property during the inauguration, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/state-capitals-protests-governors/2021/01/13/d3ec0e7c-55c7-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html">perhaps even after</a>. </p>
<p>Based on my and others’ research on successful attempts to forestall violence, these are steps that have worked and could be considered by state leaders. </p>
<h2>1. Share intelligence</h2>
<p>Take seriously and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/13/us/capitol-investigation">share widely</a> intelligence about potential right-wing threats. A major contributor to poor Capitol policing on Jan. 6 was law enforcement’s failure to believe <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/capitol-riot-fbi-intelligence/2021/01/12/30d12748-546b-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html">and disseminate</a> credible intelligence <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/us/politics/capitol-siege-security.html">about people who look like them</a> and may have claimed to support police in the past. </p>
<h2>2. Resist the urge to crack down on peaceful protest</h2>
<p>Focus on those equipped to undertake violence. The Capitol riot is not a justification for policing other groups more harshly, whether during the inauguration or after. Suppressing nonviolent protesters can not only violate their First Amendment rights, but also stretch forces thin. </p>
<h2>3. Look for explosives</h2>
<p>Explosives may be found around critical communication hubs and other places, using bomb-sniffing dogs, video surveillance and other assets. A well-placed explosive can <a href="https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/local/nashville-bombing-exposes-weakness-communication-infrastructure-security-expert/RB7WZ6VW4BFGJJHL3KPTOLXOJM/">knock out communications</a> for a wide area, leaving 911 and other communication networks inaccessible. Bombs are a favored tool of insurgents because they can be homemade and one person can cause significant damage.</p>
<h2>4. Plan for more personnel if necessary</h2>
<p>Many local law enforcement agencies have mutual-assistance agreements with other local agencies, and governors can activate National Guard troops.</p>
<p>State leaders who address these issues – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/state-capitals-protests-governors/2021/01/13/d3ec0e7c-55c7-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html">as some have begun to</a> – and shore up their planning have, I believe, a better chance at forestalling a capitol riot of their own.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153285/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Earl does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Far-right activists and white supremacists may choose to create what they call their “1776 moment” closer to home.Jennifer Earl, Professor of Sociology, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1503552020-12-08T13:13:09Z2020-12-08T13:13:09ZNigerians got their abusive SARS police force abolished – but elation soon turned to frustration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373355/original/file-20201207-13-aw9ia3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C10%2C3546%2C2349&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A police officer in Lagos, Nigeria, Nov. 3. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-officer-stand-on-guard-while-the-inspector-general-news-photo/1229455671?adppopup=true">Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a brief moment in October, it seemed that youthful protesters calling to “abolish” a police force had succeeded. After weeks of mass demonstrations against police brutality, the government agreed to disband a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/10/22/sars-a-brief-history-of-a-rogue-unit">widely hated police unit</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90566898/how-to-help-nigeria-what-you-can-do-for-the-end-sars-protest-movement-right-now">This was in Nigeria</a>, not the United States. But the lessons from Nigeria have broad relevance for protesters elsewhere calling for major reforms to policing.</p>
<p>In Nigeria, it took just three weeks of mass demonstrations for President Muhammadu Buhari to announce he would eliminate the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/11/nigeria-to-disband-sars-police-unit-accused-of-killings-and-brutality">Special Anti-Robbery Squad</a>, or SARS, the most reviled segment of the national Nigerian Police Force.</p>
<p>SARS officers were infamous for demanding bribes at checkpoints and for <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/10/photographer-behind-viral-sars-video-in-ughelli-tells-his-side-of-the-story/">violent confrontations with civilians</a> that could end in death. Though heavily armed, SARS officers seldom wore uniforms. Many Nigerians <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-8092858">struggled to distinguish</a> the police from the criminals they ostensibly pursued.</p>
<p>Buhari explained his decision to dissolve SARS by stating his “<a href="https://twitter.com/MBuhari/status/1315631722604748804">commitment to extensive police reforms</a>… to ensure that the primary duty of the police and other law enforcement agencies remains the protection of lives.” </p>
<p>At first, <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/419963-breaking-endsars-buhari-bows-to-nigerians-dissolves-sars.html">Nigerians were elated</a>, if surprised: President Buhari, a former military dictator who in the 1980s imposed corporal punishment for <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/nigerias-war-against-indiscipline">minor infractions like jumping the line at bus stops</a>, had caved to public pressure over policing. </p>
<p>Their joy was to be short-lived.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young men with face masks around their neck hold police reform signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373349/original/file-20201207-19-1xmdk9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C19%2C3213%2C2126&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373349/original/file-20201207-19-1xmdk9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373349/original/file-20201207-19-1xmdk9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373349/original/file-20201207-19-1xmdk9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373349/original/file-20201207-19-1xmdk9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373349/original/file-20201207-19-1xmdk9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373349/original/file-20201207-19-1xmdk9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young protesters call for abolishing SARS at the Lagos State House of Assembly on Oct. 9.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/endsars-protesters-occupy-lagos-state-house-of-assembly-news-photo/1228989950?adppopup=true">Adekunle Ajayi/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>History of police violence</h2>
<p>In my research on the <a href="https://scholars.duke.edu/person/Samuel.Daly">history of law enforcement in Nigeria</a>, I’ve documented how durable its police institutions are, and how resistant to fundamental change.</p>
<p>The Nigeria Police Force <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2019.1576833">dates back to British colonialism</a>, which lasted until 1960. It is <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/nigerian-police-are-desperate-need-reform">notoriously ineffective</a>, and since it is a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Police_in_a_Federal_State/BEoFAQAAIAAJ?hl=en">federal agency</a> its officers are usually not local to the places they patrol. Officers are poorly paid, which leads them to demand bribes and encourages other <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/604107">forms of corruption</a>. A lack of oversight means that police who abuse their power are seldom punished.</p>
<p>The Special Anti-Robbery Squad – the target of protesters’ recent ire – is a federal police force created during Nigeria’s long military dictatorship.</p>
<p>Military rule in Nigeria lasted from 1966 to 1999 with two brief interruptions, punctuated by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417520000316">Nigerian Civil War</a> from 1967 to 1970. After the war, economic volatility and a glut of leftover firearms contributed to a spike in property crime. </p>
<p>Nigeria’s military rulers responded to a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/703068">national crisis of armed robbery</a> by imposing martial law and making robbery a capital offense. SARS was established in 1992 as part of one such crackdown. But it endured after Nigeria returned to a civilian-led democracy in 1999. </p>
<p>Other law enforcement tools the military had used, like tribunals, continued after dictatorship, too, as did colonial-era punishments like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822387930-007">corporal punishment by police</a>. </p>
<h2>#EndSARS</h2>
<p>The mandate of SARS went beyond patrolling and investigating. It also made judgments about guilt and meted out punishment, just as policemen and soldiers had done during military rule. That punishment could entail <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/nigeria-horrific-reign-of-impunity-by-sars-makes-mockery-of-anti-torture-law/">torture, and even death</a>, which human rights groups documented. </p>
<p>SARS officers also tormented Nigerians with more mundane harassment. They set up checkpoints to search cars and phones for “evidence” that they then used to demand bribes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373351/original/file-20201207-15-1s3tair.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Heavily armed men in camouflage and black vests walk toward a line of voters" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373351/original/file-20201207-15-1s3tair.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373351/original/file-20201207-15-1s3tair.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373351/original/file-20201207-15-1s3tair.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373351/original/file-20201207-15-1s3tair.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373351/original/file-20201207-15-1s3tair.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373351/original/file-20201207-15-1s3tair.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373351/original/file-20201207-15-1s3tair.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">SARS officers patrol a polling station in Kano, in northern Nigeria, during Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/federal-special-anti-robbery-squad-check-disturbances-by-news-photo/1126895716?adppopup=true">Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In October 2020, a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-54396330">a video of the killing of a young man by SARS officers</a> in the town of Ughelli sparked long-standing opposition to SARS into a national cause. Online activism took <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/television/9472538/her-endsars-saturday-night-live-performance-videos/">#EndSARS international</a>, and an avalanche of Twitter posts exhorted the Nigerian government to dissolve the force. Nigerians <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/16/black-lives-matter-everywhere-support-endsars-nigeria">living abroad led protests</a> in New York and in front of many Nigerian embassies, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/endsars-nigeria-police-brutality-sars-lekki-protest/2020/10/22/27e31e0c-143d-11eb-a258-614acf2b906d_story.html">garnering global media attention</a>.</p>
<p>#EndSARS built on a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/25/roots-endsars-protests-nigeria/">long history of discontent with the Nigerian police</a>. While the movement in some ways recalled Black Lives Matter in the United States – which <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/black-lives-matter-stands-in-solidarity-with-endsars-movement-against-police-brutality/">issued a statement in support of #EndSARS</a> – age rather than race was at its center. Its leaders argued that, as young people in a state run by elderly ex-soldiers, they were vulnerable to police harassment.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.pulse.ng/lifestyle/soro-soke-werey-the-origin-endsars-battle-cry/nz6fqmh">Soro soke werey</a>” – a slang phrase roughly meaning, “speak up, madman” – was one of its slogans, an indictment of past generations for having tolerated police violence.</p>
<h2>#EndSWAT</h2>
<p>Two days after President Buhari agreed to disband SARS, celebration turned to disillusionment. </p>
<p>On Oct. 14, the Nigerian Police Force unveiled a new police squad, the Special Weapons and Tactics Team, or SWAT. The police promised SWAT would be “<a href="https://twitter.com/PoliceNG/status/1316421071323701248">strictly intelligence-driven</a>,” and that “no personnel from the defunct SARS will be selected to be part of the new tactical team.”</p>
<p>Activists suspected SWAT was a new label for an old institution, not a meaningful reform. Rather than <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/endsars-nigeria-police-brutality-sars-lekki-protest/2020/10/22/27e31e0c-143d-11eb-a258-614acf2b906d_story.html">clearing the streets</a>, protests grew, in Nigeria and abroad. #EndSARS became #EndSWAT. On Oct. 20, soldiers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/world/africa/nigeria-shooting-protesters-SARS-Lekki.html">opened fire</a> at an #EndSWAT protest in Lagos, killing at least 48. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Crowd holding #EndSARS signs with New York skyscrapers visible in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373348/original/file-20201207-21-1xkefh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373348/original/file-20201207-21-1xkefh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373348/original/file-20201207-21-1xkefh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373348/original/file-20201207-21-1xkefh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373348/original/file-20201207-21-1xkefh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373348/original/file-20201207-21-1xkefh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373348/original/file-20201207-21-1xkefh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protest against Nigeria’s SARS police force in New York City on Oct. 21.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-protest-against-recent-violence-at-demonstrations-in-news-photo/1281525266?adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Six police officers have been killed on the job <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/lagos-gives-n10m-each-to-families-of-policemen-killed-during-endsars-protests/">since the #EndSARS movement concluded</a>, and the Lagos State government has compensated their families. Nothing has been paid to the families of the protesters who died. The Lagos State government opened a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-54708009">judicial commission of inquiry</a> to investigate the Oct. 20 killings, but such inquiries, which are merely advisory, have come to little in the past.</p>
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<p>Nigeria’s government has begun punishing the young organizers of #EndSARS, including by <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/11/13/nigeria-punitive-financial-moves-against-protesters">freezing their bank accounts and revoking their passports</a>. This, too, has echoes in the past. Financial penalties were imposed on the losing side of the Nigerian Civil War <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-of-the-republic-of-biafra/59377D443F078E195F366F5D1BCB31B9">in the early 1970s</a>, and military regimes regularly prevented their critics from leaving the country. </p>
<p>Nigeria’s story reveals a common pitfall of police reform movements that’s also been seen in the United States and beyond. Governments facing pressure to reform police may <a href="https://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/GrunwaldRappaportArticle_geykjizk.pdf">shuffle around personnel or rebrand maligned units</a> – but cosmetic changes <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-disbanding-the-notorious-anti-robbery-squad-wont-stop-bad-policing-in-nigeria-147934">cannot fix root problems that date back decades</a>, even centuries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Fury Childs Daly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The story of Nigeria’s #EndSARS movement shows just how durable law enforcement institutions are – and why the road to reform goes straight uphill.Samuel Fury Childs Daly, Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies, Duke UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.