MIT Technology Review – “After years of police body cams and bystander cellphone video, it’s clear that evidentiary images on their own don’t bring about change. What’s missing is power …The hope for sousveillance comes from the same logic. If police officers know they’re being watched both by their body cameras and by civilians with cell phones, they will discipline themselves and refrain from engaging in unnecessary violence. It’s a good theory, but in practice, it hasn’t worked. A large study in 2017 by the Washington, DC, mayor’s office assigned more than a thousand police officers in the District to wear body cameras and more than a thousand to go camera-free. The researchers hoped to find evidence that wearing cameras correlated with better policing, less use of force, and fewer civilian complaints. They found none: the difference in behavior between the officers who knew they were being watched and the officers who knew they were not was statistically insignificant. Another study, which analyzed the results of 10 randomized controlled trials of body camera use in different nations, was helpfully titled “Wearing body cameras increases assaults against officers and does not reduce police use of force.”… [h/t Mary Whisner]
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Daily Archives: June 10, 2020
COVID-19: Remote Voting Trends and the Election Infrastructure Subsector
CRS report via LC – COVID-19: Remote Voting Trends and the Election Infrastructure Subsector, June 10, 2020: “…Public health concerns about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have accelerated consideration of remote voting options as many voters have sought to avoid the possible health risks of crowded polling places. Elections authorities have invested in new… Continue Reading
What If Working From Home Goes on … Forever?
The New York Times – Miserable as it can often be, remote work is surprisingly productive — leading many employers to wonder if they’ll ever go back to the office. “…In a May working paper, Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor in management science at M.I.T., and a group of academics reported survey results indicating that half… Continue Reading
NYT Vaccine Tracker
Coronavirus VaccineTracker: “Researchers around the world are developing more than 135 vaccines against the coronavirus. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year. Work began in January with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine… Continue Reading
Congress Civilian Control of the Military and Nonpartisanship
CRS report via LC: Congress,Civilian Control of the Military, and Nonpartisanship, June 10, 2020: “The possible use of federal armed forces as part of the U.S. executive branch’s response to incidents of violence during racial justice protests has raised questions about how the military is controlled by domestic political institutions and the U.S.military’s relationship with… Continue Reading
Academic libraries will change in significant ways
Inside Higher Education – Christopher Cox predicts the significant ways academic libraries will shift in terms of collections, services, spaces and operations as a result of the pandemic – “In early March 2020, COVID-19 blindsided academic libraries. With little time to plan, we closed our library facilities at Clemson University to protect the safety of… Continue Reading
New report identifies why enterprise security tools are failing
FedScoop: “…The latest FireEye Mandiant Security Effectiveness Report which assesses the effectiveness of security controls used at participating organizations around the world, by executing thousands of mock attacks on more than 120 market-leading security technologies deployed by those organizations. It probably won’t come as a surprise that these large-scale organizations manage between 30 to 50… Continue Reading
CIO Council report recommends improvements to federal IT hiring
FedScoop – “…More than 80% of the federal IT workforce is older than 40, per federal data cited in the report. Of the remaining population, just over 3% is younger than 30, and agencies continue to struggle to attract and hire younger IT talent to fill in this gap. The “Future of the Federal IT Workforce Update” report… Continue Reading
A Single Session of Exercise Alters 9,815 Molecules in Our Blood
The New York Times – “When we exercise, the levels of thousands of substances in our bloodstream rise and drop, according to an eye-opening new study of the immediate, interior impacts of working out. The study is the most comprehensive cataloging to date of the molecular changes that occur during and after exercise and underscores… Continue Reading
More than 1,250 former Justice Dept. workers call for Barr probe
Washington Post – “…In a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, the group said it was “deeply concerned about the Department’s actions, and those of Attorney General William Barr himself, in response to the nationwide lawful gatherings to protest the systemic racism that has plagued this country throughout its history.” “In particular, we… Continue Reading
Voting in Jails
The Sentencing Project – Voting in Jails – Nicole D. Porter – “While the COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges for voters during the 2020 election cycle, voting access for the 700,000 people held in local jails around the country has long been critically compromised. This report highlights jurisdictions around the country that actively support ballot access for people… Continue Reading
