Year: 2017

Detective Behind Seven Wrongful Convictions Facing Inquiry for Framing Defendants

Tragically, police and detectives really do frame people. It sounds like something out of a crime novel. Unfortunately, it’s reality. A New York Times report states that Louis Scarcella, an infamous New York City detective, is facing an inquiry into his past police work. So far, Mr. Scarcella has not been accused of a crime….

Can Teens Get in Legal Trouble for Sexting

Today, young people and teenagers do more communicating online than they do in person. Parents today face a lot of challenges. Back in the day, parents had to worry about things like their children watching too much television or maybe pigging out on junk food in the middle of the night. The internet didn’t exist,…

Police Arrest the Victim of Identity Theft — for Stealing His Own Identity

As terrifying as the foregoing scenario is, it’s unfortunately not an isolated incident. A recent case out of Albuquerque, New Mexico highlights one of those nightmare scenarios you hope never happens to you — getting arrested for a crime when you are actually the victim. According to reports, a 40-year-old dispatcher for the Kirtland Air…

Texas Schools Warn Parents About New Snapchat Cyberbullying Game

A bullying game called “Letter X” has swept the country. Just about everyone has a childhood (or even adulthood) tale of being bullied. Unfortunately, bullying is something that happens in schools across the country. However, technology has made bullying even more pervasive. Rather than ending in the hallway or on the playground, bullying can now…

Jewel Heists Happen — and the FBI Has a Special Team to Investigate Them

The theft of jewels and art is a serious federal crime punishable by high fines and lengthy prison sentences. Jewel thefts may sound like crimes that belong in big budget Hollywood movies, but they happen in real life. They happen so often, in fact, that the FBI has a special team devoted to investigating crimes…

Are Police Scanner Apps Legal in Texas

If you’re going to use a mobile police scanner app, it’s important to do so responsibly. Police scanners have been around for years. They’re legal in nearly all 50 states, and many people use them to monitor crime in their neighborhood. Radio enthusiasts also sometimes listen in for entertainment purposes. However, a new type of…

Police Violence Is Not Just an American Problem

Police shootings in the U.S. revealed that one-fourth involved someone with a mental illness. Police violence and misconduct is well-documented in the United States. It’s an issue that receives a lot of media attention — sometimes so much so that it’s easy to wonder if other countries experience such serious social and criminal justice issues….

can police search school lockers

Sometimes the interests of public safety outweigh any single person’s privacy rights. According to an April 2017 report, police in Georgia conducted a drug dog sweep of a high school, then followed it up with pat down searches of 900 students. Some students said the searchers were “aggressive.” School officials stated that they did not…

war on drugs

Attorney General Jeff Sessions may be shifting the country back to the harsh policies of the 1980s. The “war on drugs” was a policy created by the Nixon Administration in the early 1970s. Under the policy, courts adopted a no tolerance policy for drug offenses. The most noticeable effect of the policy was a massive…

rick perry

Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and current U.S. Energy Secretary, has endorsed two proposed criminal justice reforms currently in the Texas legislature that would help people who have been charged or convicted of crimes. Writing in the Houston Chronicle, Perry touted reforms that took place during his tenure as governor that helped reduce Texas’…