Latest Law Enforcement Headlines
All the headlines from our Law Enforcement Topic Page, ordered by recency.
New Orleans Approves Some Police Use of Facial Recognition
Jul 25 2022 // The New Orleans City Council has reversed itself and approved police use of facial recognition software and cellphone surveillance towers to investigate violent crimes. The ordinance, approved by the council on a 4-to-2...
Boston Police Unions Challenge Rules on Use of Force
Jul 22 2022 // Two police unions in Boston want to roll back limits on when they can use tear gas, pepper spray and other less-than-lethal crowd control methods, which the City Council implemented last year. The two unions are asking a...
Iowa City Settles Fatal Police Shooting Suit for $5M
Jul 18 2022 // Burlington, Iowa, has agreed to pay $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the mother of a man who was shot to death by police nearly five years ago, the two sides said. The settlement comes nearly five...
Iowa Assistant AG Sues Des Moines Police Over Protest Arrest
Jul 15 2022 // An assistant attorney general in Iowa is suing the city of Des Moines and its police chief over his arrest during a June 2020 racial justice protest, alleging he was tackled, pepper-sprayed and handcuffed for no...
Uvalde, Texas Video Raises More Calls for Police Accountability
Jul 15 2022 // As video taken inside Robb Elementary School puts in full view the bewildering inaction by law enforcement during the May slaughter of 19 children and two teachers, some in Uvalde are shouting: Will police face...
Detroit to Pay $7.5 Million to Man Who Claims Police Switched Bullets
Jul 15 2022 // Detroit agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit by a man who claimed police switched bullets to pin a murder on him in 1992. Desmond Ricks was released from prison in 2017 after 25 years, thanks to gun experts, law...
Nonprofit’s Lawsuit Seeks Access to Baltimore Police Records
Jul 6 2022 // A lawsuit recently filed by a Baltimore nonprofit alleges the city department that handles police records is improperly shielding police misconduct documents. The suit brought by the transparency advocacy group Open...
Iowa City Settles Fatal Police Shooting Suit for $5M
Jun 28 2022 // Burlington, Iowa, has agreed to pay $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the mother of a man who was shot to death by police nearly five years ago, the two sides said. The settlement comes nearly five...
Jury Awards $21M to Family of Pregnant Teen Shot by Police in California
Jun 27 2022 // A jury awarded $21 million to the family of a pregnant teen who was shot and killed by undercover police officers in Northern California five years ago, attorneys said. Elena Mondragon was a passenger in a BMW pulling out...
Texas Top Cop Says Uvalde Police Could’ve Ended Rampage Early on
Jun 22 2022 // Police had enough officers on the scene of the Uvalde school massacre to have stopped the gunman three minutes after he entered the building, and they would have found the door to the classroom where he was holed up...
Former Virginia Police Chief Files Lawsuit Against Charlottesville
Jun 20 2022 // CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—A former Virginia police chief is suing the city she served as well as several current and former officials over her firing, saying in her $10 million lawsuit that she was terminated because of her...
$1.5M Settlement for Washington Police Chief Who Displayed Nazi Insignia
Jun 14 2022 // A suburban Seattle, Washington, city will pay more than $1.5 million to settle a dispute with a former assistant police chief who was disciplined for posting a Nazi rank insignia on his office door and joking about the...
Columbus, Ohio Limits How Police Use Force on Protesters
Jun 13 2022 // Police in Ohio’s capital will be limited in how they can use force against protesters and will have to display officers’ names on their riot gear under changes being made to city law. Columbus City Council...
Justice Department Starts Probe Into Louisiana State Police
Jun 10 2022 // The U.S. Justice Department is opening a “pattern-or-practice” investigation into the Louisiana State Police amid mounting evidence that the agency has looked the other way in the face of beatings of mostly...
Liability of State Police, Casino/Track Owners at Issue in Pennsylvania Murder Case
Jun 7 2022 // On November 24, 2018, Alicia E. Shaffer Stalheim, 25, was murdered by her jealous boyfriend, Luis Rodriguez, seven months after Rodriguez learned Stalheim and her children met for ice cream with another man. Stalheim,...
Protestor Struck by Rubber Bullet Sues Police in Washington
Jun 6 2022 // A woman who was struck in the eye with a so-called “rubber sbullet” during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, causing an injury that required surgery, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the...
Federal Court Upholds Connecticut Law on Disclosing Police Records
Jun 6 2022 // A federal appeals court has upheld part of a 2020 Connecticut police accountability law that allows public disclosure of state trooper personnel files and internal investigations. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in...
Washington Police Say Drivers Aren’t Stopping for Them
Jun 1 2022 // The Washington State Patrol says drivers are increasingly refusing to stop for troopers – and other law enforcement agencies also say this is becoming a common occurrence. The Northwest News Network reports that from...
Police in Arizona Find 1,200 Catalytic Converters as Thefts Soar
Jun 1 2022 // An Arizona man was facing multiple theft charges last week after detectives found more than 1,200 catalytic converters packed into a storage unit, a case that highlights a national surge in thefts of the pricy auto parts...
Baltimore Settles With Rapper for $300K Over Claims of False Arrest, Police Planting Drugs
May 31 2022 // A court settlement calls for the city of Baltimore to pay $300,000 to resolve claims that police officers planted drugs on a rapper known as Young Moose. The Baltimore Sun reports that the city’s spending board is...
