Latest Law Enforcement Headlines

All the headlines from our Law Enforcement Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Cops Draw Blood to Catch Impaired Drivers

Apr 23 2019 // It was about 6:30 on a Friday night in January when Phoenix Police Det. Kemp Layden pulled over a white Jeep Cherokee that was speeding and weaving in and out of its lane.The 47-year-old driver spoke slowly, his eyes were...

Student Sues Apple for $1 Billion, Blames Face-Recognition Tech for False Arrest

Apr 23 2019 // Apple is being sued for $1 billion in damages by an 18-year-old college student who blames the company’s facial recognition software for his false arrest and for wrongly tying him to thefts at Apple stores in several...

Digital or Plastic? Or Both? States Experiment with Driver’s Licenses

Apr 17 2019 // Millions of people may be able to show their smartphones rather than a plastic card to prove they’re legit to drive, vote or buy a beer in coming years.Louisiana in July became the first state to make digital...

Fire Chief Says Shop Owner Declined to Evacuate Before North Carolina Blast

Apr 15 2019 // The coffee shop owner killed in a North Carolina gas line explosion was last seen in the doorway of his business after firefighters evacuated his customers and told him to leave, the fire chief said Thursday, as city...

Mother Sues Vegas Police Over Teen Son’s Shooting Death

Apr 11 2019 // The mother of a teenager who died of a gunshot to the head after police chased him into her house has filed a federal civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit against Las Vegas police.Taccara Brooks alleges in the case...

MIT Researcher Exposing Bias in Facial Recognition Tech Triggers Amazon’s Wrath

Apr 8 2019 // Facial recognition technology was already seeping into everyday life — from photos on Facebook to police scans of mugshots — when Joy Buolamwini noticed a serious glitch: Some of the software couldn’t detect...

California Jury Awards $9M to Family of Woman Shot to Death

Mar 28 2019 // A California jury has awarded $9 million to the family of a woman fatally shot seven times by police in Long Beach in 2017 in what the family’s attorneys say is the largest such award in city history.The federal jury...

City of Charlotte, North Carolina Pays Family $950K in Pedestrian’s Death

Mar 20 2019 // A North Carolina city has paid the family of a man who was hit and killed by a speeding police car in 2017. The Charlotte Observer reports the city of Charlotte paid $950,000 in December to the family of James Michael...

Nevada Mulling ‘Textalyzer’ Tech That Scans Cellphones After Crashes

Mar 18 2019 // Most states ban texting behind the wheel, but a legislative proposal could make Nevada one of the first states to allow police to use a contentious technology to find out if a person was using a cellphone during a car...

Family Sues Nashville, Police Officer for $30M Over Fatal Shooting

Mar 14 2019 // The family of a black man killed by a Nashville police officer filed a federal lawsuit Monday, naming the city and the white officer who fatally shot the man from behind as he ran with a gun.Attorney Joy Kimbrough said the...

North Carolina Insurance Fraud Round-Up: January, February

Mar 13 2019 // The North Carolina Department of Insurance announced multiple fraud enforcement actions during the first two months of 2019.Insurance fraud costs American consumers approximately $80 billion dollars a year. According to...

Honolulu Paying $550K to Settle 2009 Police Suit

Mar 12 2019 // The Honolulu City Council has agreed to pay $550,000 to a retired police lieutenant who claimed that Police Chief Susan Ballard had tampered with recruits’ test scores when she was in charge of the training...

No Criminal Liability for Uber in Fatal 2018 Arizona Self-Driving Car Crash

Mar 6 2019 // Uber Technologies Inc. is not criminally liable in a March 2018 crash in Tempe, Arizona, in which one of the company’s self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian, prosecutors said on Tuesday.The Yavapai County...

Police Say Intoxicated Driver Hit 41 Cars in Rhode Island

Mar 1 2019 // Rhode Island police have arrested a man they say was driving under the influence when he struck more than 40 other vehicles.Police say 45-year-old Christopher Paolissi, of Foster, was “zig-zagging” his pickup...

Police: 5 Hurt in Indiana Church Bus Crash; Driver Arrested, Charged with DWI

Feb 28 2019 // Authorities say an 82-year-old church bus driver is charged with driving while intoxicated after five people were injured when a bus returning from a Chicago Bulls game went off the road in northwestern Indiana. Indiana...

Police Say Two Killed in Plane Crash at Massachusetts Airport

Feb 26 2019 // Massachusetts State Police say two people have died after a small plane crashed and caught fire at Mansfield Municipal Airport. Saturday’s crash occurred at about 12:36 p.m., according to the state police...

How to Get Autonomous Cars to Pull Over for Police

Feb 25 2019 // It was still dark on a Friday morning in November when a California Highway Patrol officer started following a Tesla Model S on Route 101 between the San Francisco International Airport and Palo Alto. The gray sedan was...

Supreme Court Declines to Revive Wrongful Death Suit over Mississippi Police Shooting

Feb 22 2019 // The U.S. Supreme Court will not revive a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a black man shot to death by a white police officer in Mississippi.Antwun “Ronnie” Shumpert was killed in June 2016 in...

Montana Lawsuit Over 2012 Police Tackling Injury Settled

Feb 19 2019 // The city of Billings has settled a lawsuit filed by a man whose rotator cuff was torn when a police officer tackled him, wrongly identifying him as a crime suspect.The Billings Gazette reports that Robert Bassett will...

CAUTION: Safety U-Turn for Truckers with Animals

Feb 4 2019 // Hours of Service, Other Safety Exemptions for Livestock Haulers Raise ConcernsMidwest Center for Investigative Reporting It was sometime around 4 a.m. on a cool, spring morning when James McGilvray lost control of his...