Summer Youth Employment Programs are proven to reduce crime & violence, & offer at-risk youth a more constructive path forward. Now is the time to scale them fully.

Read more here: "Investing in Summer Youth Employment Programs Creates Stronger, Safer Communities"

marckrupanski.com/2025/09/15/i...

We have a long list of policy options to reduce crime, such as:

• Improving police staffing & presence
• Strengthening investigations & case clearances
• Better DNA collection & analysis
• Scaling summer youth employment programs
• & more…

Reach out to discuss what could work in your state or city

Thanks to @npr.org for the opportunity to weigh in on what’s happening in DC and how to best address violent crime.

www.npr.org/2025/08/20/n...

One thing that didn't make it into today's piece:

Washington, DC already has by far the highest number of law enforcement officers per capita of any city of 250k+.

A few of the things we are trying are noted here: pilot what has worked in related fields, focus on improving recruitment and retention of women, and identifying those roles that civilians can do to free up officer time.
/end

This is an incredibly important issue where we can’t simply throw things at the wall and hope they stick, but - especially in a changing labor market - need to be more intentional and rigorous in piloting, testing, and replicating what works. /3

I wrote a short post here on some of the points I addressed on police staffing.

marckrupanski.com/2025/08/07/s...

/2

Last week I was fortunate to lead a panel during the @ncslorg.bsky.social 2025 Summit on “Safer States: Shoring Up the Public Safety Workforce." Thrilled to intro & learn from Montana DOC Director Brian Gootkin, and ASU Professor Beth Huebner. They're both doing exciting work worth checking out. /1

A new state database tracking police use-of-force data across Washington is now live.

State officials say they're hopeful this will lead to more data-driven policies and decision-making within the justice system — and improved public safety in Washington.

www.kuow.org/stories/wash...

NYC homicides and shootings drop to record lows so far in 2025, officials say. Great news!

Yet, crime remains a top concern for New Yorkers, despite fewer major crimes. This appears to be driven by complaints fueled by lower level incidents. gothamist.com/news/nyc-hom... via @gothamist.com

Just your regular reminder from New Jersey that Springsteen is still so good.

I hear from many police leaders how their federal partners working with them on violent and major crimes have been pulled off these task forces and sent to civil immigration enforcement.

There is a serious tradeoff risk being made here - especially as many local depts still struggle with staffing.

This is my periodic plea, when you are doing your political assessments post-failure, it’s a fool’s errand to think we just need to “message better.” You have to contend with the fact that certain policies are not popular if not simply wrong.

Data spotlight 🔦

The Gun Violence Data Hub released a dataset of mass shootings from 2014 to the present, sourced from the Gun Violence Archive. Explore the data and learn best practices for using it:

New this week: the FBI released data on law enforcement employees through 2024 last week. Big city police departments fell a ton from 2019 to 2023, but they were largely steady in 2024. Agencies for all other population types saw modest growth.

jasher.substack.com/p/big-police...

Some suspects in violent assaults and sex crimes are escaping American justice because they're being deported before they can stand trial, according to a number of prosecutors and legal experts across the country.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Oral arguments today in SCOTUS on birthright citizenship. Big issue will be whether lower courts can issue universal injunctions. Trump argues judges can only block EO from applying to babies in each case, which would make legal decisions ineffective & cause chaos economist.com/united-state...

One thing I’ll say about the “democracy protests” that I’ve seen happen now in 3 different states: they’re filled with people who seem to be 60 years old and up. Not your typical demographic for protests.

Hi from today’s BRIDGE Day on retail theft. Excellent panel representing retailers, cities, police, and prosecutors, on what problems they’re seeing and the interventions they’re trying.

@arnoldventures.bsky.social
@mkrupanski.bsky.social

New this week: Federal crime data gets released at a snail's pace, which means it's probably too soon to know whether there will be any major unexpected alterations or removals.

jasher.substack.com/p/federal-cr...

Remember that time when we were once taught and most people agreed that lying is bad?

I got to write the 2nd edition of our @arnoldventures.bsky.social criminal justice team newsletter. Headline this time: "Big Research in Little Scandinavia!"

Check it out here, and if you haven't already, subscribe!

bit.ly/AV_CJ_newsle...

BREAKING: The head of the FBI's New York Field Office has been pushed out after he urged employees to "dig in" when the Trump admin was purging bureau leadership and demanding the names of FBI employees who worked Jan. 6 cases.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

Just noticed that NOPD reported 2 murders in February 2025. That's the fewest murders in a month in more than 60 years -- since September 1963.