The Michigan Public Policy Survey, conducted last spring by U-M’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, found most officials are unsure about the accuracy of public safety risk assessments made by automated tools such as AI. However, sheriffs...
Among Michigan law enforcement agency leaders, concerns about funding levels are widespread, with almost half of chiefs of police and county sheriffs saying the local governments they serve do not provide sufficient money for their...
Debra Horner spoke with WJR proposing potential solutions to improve the alarming law enforcement recruitment deficit. “One of the first and most important issues that chiefs of police, sheriffs, and local government officials brought up was the...
Concerns about hiring and keeping law enforcement officers have skyrocketed among local government officials in Michigan in the past decade.Local law enforcement officials themselves are even more pessimistic about recruitment and retention within...
Policing technologies are increasingly being used to surveil the public with the stated goal of making communities safer and decreasing crime.New policy briefs from the Ford School of Public Policy’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy program...
Kamissa Camara chaired the Bipartisan Senior Study Group for the Sahel at the U.S. Institute of Peace. The study group’s comprehensive report critically assesses opportunities for peace, security, and economic development in the Sahel.Charlotte...
Inclusive innovation—the idea of introducing technologies designed for and by the poor to boost economic growth in impoverished communities—often misses the real problems facing these communities and champions solutions that benefit entrepreneurs at...
When responding to calls related to mental health crises, police should work to change the environments where people with psychiatric disabilities live and work, rather than simply connecting them with medical intervention.Professor David Thacher, a...
In the wake of racial justice movements across the country, the State of Michigan and some of its communities have been implementing new public safety and criminal justice policies. The perspective of Michigan's local government, public safety, and...
By Daniel Rivkin
Akiho Nagano (MPP '23) and Mayu Ueno (MPP '24) were speaking in a corridor at Weill Hall, sharing thoughts about past jobs, future jobs, and their families. Roaming the halls, you can hear similar conversations, in their case in...
In an essay for Vital City New York, Ford School professor David Thacher looks at the potential fall-out of Mayor Eric Adams’s recent order of forced psychiatric evaluation for people causing trouble on the streets and in the subway. He traces New...
Competing concerns about police brutality and high crime rates are reflected in Detroiters' attitudes toward the police, according to University of Michigan research.
A recent U-M survey finds that about 6 in 10 adult Detroit residents believe...
One month ago, activists across the country recognized the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's killing, sparking discussion of what has changed in policing since then. While many ideas have been thrown around, like employing social workers to...
More local law enforcement agencies are using military equipment, such as tear gas, armored vehicles and rubber bullets, to handle social justice protests—calling into question police militarization.
But if police no longer used weapons and...
An article in Bridge news on June 15 says that “as thousands of protesters across Michigan and the nation march against racial injustice and police brutality, one policy proposal has emerged as a rallying cry: defund the police.”
Ford School...
The Student Affairs Committee (SAC) and International Policy Student Association (IPSA), two longstanding Ford School student organizations, have released statements of solidarity with the Black community and the movements for Black lives. We share...
Images of heavily-armed police have been one jarring aspect of the scenes on American streets for the past week. For decades, the Department of Defense has run a program that has distributed “everything from bayonets to grenade launchers” to police...
This Sunday's print edition of the Washington Post included an opinion piece penned by joint doctoral student Jessica W. Gillooly. The post, titled "Want to stop more Starbucks scenarios? Train these people." suggested that 911 operators have a key...
In December 2016, David Thacher's "Channeling Police Discretion: The Hidden Potential of Focused Deterrence" was published in the 2016 volume of University of Chicago Legal Forum.
Abstract
The breadth of the criminal law and the unfettered...
On Monday, February 22, the Ford School hosted “21st Century Policing: Lessons from Cincinnati,” as part of the University of Michigan's 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium. The event brought together a roundtable of community leaders to talk...
In the summer of 1967, James B. Hudak (MPP '71) watched Detroit burn. He was between his sophomore and junior years as an undergraduate at Yale. A friend got him a summer job working the night shift at a Chrysler assembly plant in Detroit. He lived...
David Thacher explores the growing gulf in public safety between haves, have-nots.
Flint and Ann Arbor, Mich., are roughly equal in size. But that's where the comparison ends. Ann Arbor is home to a rapidly growing tech industry, a highly...
Join for an important discussion on the complicated issue of race and policing in the United States, featuring New York Times Contributor Jessica Jaglois, and Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit, Rochelle Riley.
Join us for a panel discussion on police reform and mass incarceration. Featured panelists include Lisa Daugaard, Director of the Public Defender Association in Seattle, Broderick Johnson, Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence at the Ford School and Chairman of My Brothers Keeper Alliance, and David Klinger, Professor of Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Professor Christian Davenport will moderate the conversation.
This discussion will analyze the well-being and neglect of police officers, which affects their decision-making and mental health in a vicious cycle, and possible solutions to the issue. November, 2021.
