In Illinois, mental health workers are beginning to be paired with police officers while responding to calls. We talked with members of a police department, a behaviorial health program and a program that offers alternatives to calling the police during mental health crises.
Police departments in Illinois have had to report racial and ethnic information about traffic stops for nearly two decades since a law passed by former State Sen. Barack Obama. But years later, inequities persist. We talked about it with a culture and diversity reporter, an attorney at the ACLU, and the president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
A conversation with Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, who says he’s working to improve diversity at the agency and expand capacity. But that comes after years of criticism over a huge backlog in DNA evidence and the slow processing of firearm licenses.
A new law in Illinois will ban police officers from using lies to get minors to confess to crimes during an interrogation. The 21st spoke with an attorney and police chief about how the long term effects of the new law.
It has been one year since a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man for 9 minutes, killing him. The widely circulated video of the incident sparked a summer of protests. The 21st spoke to three Black law enforcement officers about the calls for change in policing, and for greater racial justice following the murder of George Floyd.
