Leotis McCormack answers the phone at his office at the Nez Perce Tribal Police Department in Lapwai, Idaho. (Credit: Lauren Paterson / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 4:02) Read More than 17… Continue Reading Local control, better Read More
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing Tuesday, June 27, 2023, at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow. (August Frank/The Lewiston Tribune via AP) Listen (Runtime :55) Read At… Continue Reading Lawyer for Read More
Courtesy of Community In Schools Listen (Runtime 3:20) Read A controversial tax in Benton County has raised more money than expected. Now commissioners are hearing proposals from community organizations requesting… Read More
New laws governing Washington State law enforcement took effect on Sunday, including their use of force (HB 1310) and tactics (HB 1054).
Some police departments in King County say new laws means they will no longer respond to certain calls; City of Seattle chief Adrian Diaz calls that “absurd.” Read More
Nez Perce Tribal Police Chief Harold Scott on April 21, 2021 in the Northwest Public Broadcasting studios. In this episode of Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella, Nez Perce Tribal police… Continue Reading ‘Traverse Talks’ Episode 20: Harold Scott On Read More
In Washington, the working partnership between police and crisis mental health workers is being put to the test. The reason is a new police use of force law. Continue Reading Police Say It’s Hands Off For Some Read More
The state's new accountability laws might not have happened without the advocacy of people whose family members were killed by police. Continue Reading 3 Washington Families On How New Police Laws Could Have Helped Their Loved Read More
The Washington State Patrol (WSP) is remembering Thomas’ May 24, 1985 death this week as part of its Centennial Commemoration. Beginning last September, the agency launched a year-long effort to honor all 31 officers who have died in the line of duty since the agency was founded in 1921. Read More
Multiple charges have been filed against two former Colorado police officers for their roles in the arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia last year. Continue Reading Former Officers Who Arrested A 73-Year-Old Woman With Read More
Mario Gonzalez of Oakland died April 19 after what police previously called a "scuffle" with officers. The Alameda Police Department said Gonzalez suffered some sort of "medical emergency" after an interaction with police. Continue Read More
Andrew Brown Jr. died from a fatal gunshot to the back of head, his relatives and family attorneys said Tuesday, citing the results of an independent autopsy. The finding bolsters the claim that Brown was "executed," the family said. Read More
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund wants Attorney General Merrick Garland to suspend grants to local law enforcement until he's sure that no federal taxpayer money is funding police departments that engage in discrimination, according to a letter obtained by NPR. Read More
The Washington Legislature on Tuesday approved a measure requiring police to intervene if they see a fellow officer using, or attempting to use, excessive force. Continue Reading Washington Legislature Approves Duty Read More
The jury has found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all the counts he faced over the death of George Floyd. The trial has been one of the most closely watched cases in recent memory, setting off a national reckoning on police violence and systemic racism even before the trial commenced. Read More
Testimony ended Thursday in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The defendant said he will not testify in his defense in the trial and would invoke his Fifth Amendment right. Continue Reading Testimony Ends Read More
More Murrow News Stories PULLMAN, WASH – It has been a tough, trying year for people around the world. The Pullman Police Department is one such group that has had… Continue Reading Pullman PD Wellness AppRead More
BY BECKY SULLIVAN Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center, Minn., police officer who shot Daunte Wright, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, according to Minnesota authorities. The Washington County Attorney’s… Read More
A use-of-force witness gave a new point of view to former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's trial on charges of murder and manslaughter. The defense witness said Tuesday that Chauvin and three other officers' actions were justified during the arrest that ended in George Floyd's death and that they used an appropriate amount of force. Read More
In their first public press conference, the family of Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old Black man shot and killed by police in Brooklyn Center, Minn., expressed grief and anger, called for accountability, and questioned why police felt the need to use any force on their son. Read More
U.S. Capitol Police Officer William "Billy" Evans on Tuesday is lying in honor at the Capitol, where he served for 18 years and lost his life in the line of duty earlier this month. Continue Reading Officer Billy Evans Is Honored At Read More
Mayor Mike Elliott announced Monday afternoon that the City Council had given him direct control over police operations. Later Elliott said he had relieved the city manager of his duties and assigned them to the deputy mayor. Read More
The son-in-law of the Washington State Patrol chief resigned as a trooper after investigations into allegations of on-the-job sex and sexual assault. He is now fighting to keep his badge, testing the state's narrow law for decertifying police. Read More
A Crosscut investigation found at least 183 police officers flagged for issues such as dishonesty, bias and excessive force remain in law enforcement. Continue Reading Investigation Reveals Nearly 200 Read More
The Washington state Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill to create a panel of arbitrators to review police discipline decisions and to better track law enforcement arbitration cases statewide. Continue Reading Read More
The vast majority of mayors in American cities do not support sweeping changes to the funding of their police departments, and most say last year's racial justice protests were a force for good in their cities, according to a new survey of more than 100 mayors from across the U.S. Read More
Protests erupted late Sunday in Tacoma in response to an incident a day earlier in which a police officer used his patrol vehicle to plow through a crowd, hitting several people and injuring at least two. Continue Reading Read More
Washington state lawmakers and activists are setting an ambitious agenda for police reform in the upcoming legislative session, saying they hope to make it easier to decertify officers for misconduct, to bar the use of police dogs to make arrests, and to create an independent statewide agency to investigate police killings. Read More
The death of Breonna Taylor energized a nationwide movement to restrict "no-knock" police raids, but activists want tightened rules for other kinds of forced-entry search warrants. Continue Reading Movement To Limit Police Raids Looks Beyond Read More
Pulitzer-winning composer Anthony Davis based You Have The Right To Remain Silent, released this week as a virtual performance, on his own experience with police. Continue Reading A Tense New Classical Work Bottles The Feeling Read More
After losing the governor’s race last week, Loren Culp announced that his police chief job had been eliminated — a move he said felt like a “knife in the back” by the city council in Republic. He’s not actually out of work — and the city of Republic didn’t exactly 'defund' its police department, as the Republican candidate claimed. Read More
As part of the law enforcement response to a Sept. 26 Proud Boys rally in North Portland, the U.S. Marshals deputized most of the bureau’s rapid response team, the officers responsible for policing protests. But the 56 deputations extend through the end of the year, well beyond the weekend rally. Read More
Skagit County Sheriff's Office Detective Anne Weed broached the idea for a partnership months before the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police ignited the national debate about reform. Weed said two existing mental health clinicians from Compass Health are now being "embedded" with regular patrol deputies. They get assigned the 911 calls involving people acting out Read More
The Ferry County sheriff is asking for $138,000 to cover the costs of filling in for Republic Police Chief Loren Culp while he campaigns for governor. The sheriff's office is located in Republic, a town of about 1,100 people, but Republic has its own police force. Culp is the chief and only member of the force. Read More
Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14. Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off. Read More
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson's office is reviewing at least 30 cases in which police killed or wounded people in 2020, amid concerns law enforcement agencies are not following new rules governing how they hold each other accountable in cases of deadly force. Read More
"By speaking to you today, maybe I can make sure his life was not in vain," Philonise Floyd told the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing about police brutality and accountability. Continue Reading George Floyd’s Brother Tells Lawmakers Read More
As anti-racism protests continue, people with guns are now coming to them. Rampant rumors of antifa violence draw some; others say they are protecting protesters. Continue Reading The ‘Concerned Citizen Who Happens To Be Read More
Nearly half of black Americans have very little or no confidence that police officers in their community treat people with different skin colors the same, according to the latest PBS NewsHour-NPR-Marist poll. But overall, only 18 percent of Americans take that view — an illustration in itself that people of different races are living different realities in the United Read More
Protesters against systemic racism and police brutality have been met with an arsenal of 'less than lethal' weapons which can still seriously injure, sicken, and sometimes kill. Continue Reading From ‘Flash Bangs’ To Read More
The name of Manuel Ellis is now being added to the list of black people who died in police custody, after an autopsy report ruled his death in Tacoma was a homicide. And in an echo of the George Floyd case, Ellis was heard saying he "can't breathe," as he was being restrained. Read More
The Glynn County Police Department was the initial investigative agency in Ahmaud Arbery's killing. The department had a tangled history of corruption and scandals long before the Arbery case. Continue Reading The Georgia Police Read More
Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has repeatedly said he regrets the police tactic known as "stop-and-frisk." Continue Reading Mike Bloomberg Can’t Shake The Legacy Of Stop-And-Frisk Policing In New YorkRead More
Four unique mini-docs that look at motherhood in higher education, police and drone technology, protecting our own backyard and WSU women's rowing. These unique mini-documentaries were produced, directed and edited by students of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Continue Read More
Lorenzo Elias Mendez, a former officer of the Yakama Nation Tribal Police Department, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison this month. That’s after a jury found him guilty of attempted production of child pornography. Read More
The number of workers getting less than seven hours of sleep a night is rising. Stress and our culture of constant connection may be to blame. Continue Reading Working Americans Are Getting Less Sleep, Especially Those Who Save Our Read More
Based on former federal prosecutor Mark Godsey's book of the same title, the new opera Blind Injustice draws on detailed interviews with exonerees to put America's criminal justice system on trial. Continue Reading Read More
Criminals convicted of assault, domestic violence and theft have been finding work as police officers in Alaska, according to an investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica. Continue Reading ‘A Read More
In the span of just a few years, the Washington State Patrol has built up a fleet of more than 100 drones. At last check, the Oregon State Police had three. The Washington patrol says its small quadcopters are used for crash investigations, not for surveillance. Read More
A Pullman, Wash., family is suing the University of Utah following the murder of their daughter on campus in Salt Lake City last year. Jill and Matthew McCluskey announced the $56 million lawsuit Thursday, June 27 in a press conference. Lauren McCluskey was murdered Oct. 22, 2018 by a man she had dated. Read More
In 2013, eight Oregon sheriffs sent letters to the Obama administration saying they wouldn’t enforce new federal gun laws. Two years later, the state legislature passed a bill requiring background checks for private gun sales. And again, Oregon sheriffs dug in. So it was already a well-worn path when sheriffs in Washington and Colorado started making similar assertions Read More
