Maurice Punch has written another excellent book on policing: Police Corruption: deviance, accountability and reform in policing. More than anybody else, Maurice Punch inspired my policing career (well, maybe Punch and John Van Maanen share top prize). Punch’s wonderful and classic study of the Amsterdam Police, Policing the Inner City inspired me into the whole…
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Imagine that. The Agitator pretty much sums it up. And here’s the story in the Washington Post. The best line is: “In the sense that we kept these drugs from reaching our streets, this operation was a success.” But, uh, you already had the drugs, remember? Then instead of taking them off the streets you…
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The Mexican legislature has voted to decriminalize possession of up to 5 grams of marijuana, 1/2 gram of cocaine, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine, and 50 milligrams of heroin. From the story by Tracy Wilkinson in the LA Times: The battle between law enforcement authorities and drug suspects has claimed more than 11,000 lives since he…
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My friend used to joke that the local criminals would come to court “dressed in their best sweat pants.” I was reading a David Sedaris book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, on my flight back from Chicago and came across this passage: There were plenty of things that should have concerned me–the blood-spatter evidence,…
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Generally, the bars in the Eastern aren’t a source of trouble. The yo-boys are too cool to drink in a bar and stay on the corner drinking bottles of malt liquor. Many of them aren’t old enough to be served in a bar, either. The bars are for those willing to pay a dollar or…
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The New York Times has a nice map of homicides in the city. You can select by various variables, but unfortunately not more than one at a time. The Baltimore Sun has a similar but better map. I’m always a bit surprised by just how few white homicide victims there are. Or, conversely, how many…
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The nation’s oldest (1870) mounted unit was disbanded in Boston this month. I know police on horses are of limited use, but what they dodo cannot be done by other police. It’s just eleven horses and about the same number of officers. Seems like a bad way to save money. How about shutting down a…
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Peter Hermann writes about playing with the numbers and the problem of accurate reporting. “I would suspect this goes on in most police departments,” Busnuk told me. “Others don’t have the crime problem that we do and don’t have the political pressure. But this kind of reporting is built into the DNA of the police…
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I was required to carry my gun off duty within the city limits and permitted to carry (and did) within the State of Maryland. So yes, I carried my Glock 17 when I went jogging and when I took out the trash. Generally it’s strongly discouraged for police to take action off-duty (in the next…
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I’m back from two weeks in Spain… but I’ll spare you the details except to say there was hiking in the Alpujarras involved. And very sore feet. And lots of pork. Meanwhile, I was just quoted in a widely read article (the AP is great for that) about dirty narcs in NYC. Though I don’t…
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