4 slides Credit: Tass via Getty Images The Worst I ve Seen : Capitol Police Face Scrutiny For Lack Of Transparency May 07, 2021
The U.S. Capitol Police have close to 2,000 uniformed officers, more than the Atlanta Police Department.
The agency s annual budget is around half a billion dollars, which is larger than the budget for the entire Detroit Police Department.
But until the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, few Americans were likely aware of the police force dedicated to protecting Congress.
Not anymore.
Capitol Police are now facing widespread criticism for the failure to prevent a pro-Trump mob from storming the building and putting members of Congress, the vice president, congressional staff and their own officers at serious risk. And advocates for government accountability say the Capitol Police s penchant for secrecy only exacerbated these failures.
He Spent Six Days in a Cell Covered in Feces. The Supreme Court Says He Can Sue His Jailers. It’s the first time in years the highest court allowed such a suit to proceed. The ruling suggests it is reconsidering protections for officers who cause harm. Trent Taylor was released from the John B. Connally Unit prison in Kenedy, Texas on Friday, April 9, 2021. He fought for the right to sue his guards for placing him in two filthy cells. Photos by Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman
Trent Taylor was naked in front of a Texas prison cell, hands shackled behind his back, when the stench hit him.
I just want them to be held liable : Texas case opens door to sue over police misconduct Beth Schwartzapfel, The Marshall Project, and Tony Plohetski
Trent Taylor was naked in front of a Texas prison cell, hands shackled behind his back, when the stench hit him.
“The officer that was standing next to me, he just kind of cringed,” Taylor recalls. It wasn’t until Taylor was inside the cell, the solid door locked behind him, that he got a good look.
There were human feces everywhere, he said: smeared on the window, the ceiling, packed inside the water faucet. A smiley face and a swastika were painted in feces on the wall. A layer caked on the floor made a “dry crunch” under his feet.
04/30/21
WorkersCompensation.com
Columbia, SC (WorkersCompensation.com) – The South Carolina State Senate this week reappointed T. Scott Beck to the South Carolina Workers Compensation Commission for a term that continues to June 30, 2026. Beck was also reappointed as Chairman of the S.C. Workers Compensation Commission for a term beginning July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022.
Beck was first appointed to the Commission in 2008 and has served as Chairman since 2010. He graduated with a BS degree from Penn State and received his JD degree from the USC School of Law. Prior to joining the Commission, he served in various positions in law enforcement and as an Assistant Attorney General. Commissioner Beck served as a City Councilman in North Augusta, S.C. and was elected to the SC House of Representatives, 1996-2000. He is a member of the Boards of the National Association of Workers Compensation Judiciary and the Southern Association of Workers Compensation Administrators.
Last yearâs protests against police brutality spurred a nationwide push to reform law enforcement. Dozens of states and cities responded, with bills curtailing aggressive police tactics and adding measures to ensure accountability. Maryland and New Jersey, in particular, changed use-of-force policy at its foundation.
But if changing a decentralized and complicated institution is difficult, evaluating those reforms is almost more so. While not the only measure of law enforcement quality, the number of police killings last year remained a stable 1,000 per year, or about three per day. This yearâs numbers fit that pattern so far.Â
Still, that doesnât mean the responses arenât working, says Seth Stoughton, a professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina School of Law. With just under 18,000 police departments across the country, policing is extremely complex. Standards vary based on locale, as do the laws enforced.Â