Gatekeepers: The Role of Police in Ending Mass Incarceration

"Police in America arrest millions of people each year, and the likelihood that arrest will lead to jail incarceration has increased steadily: for every 100 arrests police officers made in 2016, there were 99 jail admissions, up from 70 jail admissions for every 100 arrests in 1994. Ending mass incarceration and repairing its extensive collateral consequences thus must begin by focusing on the front end of the system: police work. Recognizing the roughly 18,000 police agencies around the country as gatekeepers of the system, this report explores the factors driving mass enforcement, particularly of low-level offenses; what police agencies could do instead with the right community investment, national and local leadership, and officer training, incentives, and support; and policies that could shift the policing paradigm away from the reflexive use of enforcement, which unnecessarily criminalizes people and leads directly to the jailhouse door."

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Link to Full Report
 

On tangling with cops and the duty to obey lawful orders

by Seneca Doane
Thu Feb 19, 2009 at 08:58:41 PM PST

There is a diary on the Rec List now in which a Koster tells of his encounter with police at an Ann Coulter lecture at his college. The police acted badly post arrest and I don't defend them for that. This diary deals with the arrest itself, and the misconception that many good liberals have about the duty to follow a public safety officer's lawful orders. This misconception can quite seriously get you killed, which is why I commented in that diary and have decided to turn that comment into my own diary on the topic.
Essentially: you have to obey a lawful order. Understand that.

Seneca Doane's diary Here's my comment from the other diary:

This is a good diary and the behavior of the police, at least as reported, was inexcusable. But for your own good and those of your readers, I want to explain why you were arrested, and why that part of the story is not a scandal.

Read on...

And if you don't obey.....taser time. Tom