(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Four Harvard University students were awakened by armed officers in their dorm rooms after a fake 911 call about a person with a “gun threatening violence” sent officers searching for the risk, according to students and public police logs.
“Things like that typically don’t end well for people who look like us,” student Jarah Cotton, who is Black and was in the dorm when it was raided, said in an interview with ABC News. “We thought we were going to die.”
Cotton, a senior at Harvard, said she was “jolted awake” by intense banging on one of the doors of her suite around 4 a.m. Monday morning.
According to the public police log, officers entered and searched the room, failing to find anyone with a firearm or someone acting suspicious. Officers reported they found no threat.
“I saw them in riot gear and like, they had their assault rifles and all that kind of stuff,” Cotton told ABC News.
Students were evacuated from their rooms as officials prepared to search them, Cotton said.
“We’re walking out, everybody’s like barefoot and pajamas, you know, frazzled,” said Cotton. “As Black students, we’ve all been taught that you do not argue with the police.”
She continued, “And we’re walking out with our hands up … we still don’t know what’s going on. So all that’s going through my mind is: I haven’t done anything. I’m sure none of my roommates have done anything to warrant this.”
According to Cotton, when officers failed to find anything wrong in the dorm suite, they explained that a series of phone calls were made to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) relaying very specific details about a hostage situation and gun threat in their suite.
HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalan confirmed that officers told students what was happening in an interview with The Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper at the university.
Massachusetts officials have seen a wave of hoax calls early this year, with threats shutting down K-12 schools and now impacting Harvard.
Faking an emergency that draws a response from law enforcement is what the FBI calls “swatting,” and it can be dangerous for both first responders and the victims because of the high-intensity and high-risk situations, officials said.
HUPD and Harvard University officials could not be reached by ABC News following multiple requests for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Electric bikes have made headlines for the dramatic leap in sales of the devices during the pandemic. However, they’ve also drawn notoriety for occasionally sparking deadly fires.
The U.S. e-bike market grew 269% between 2019 and 2022, with $885.5 million in sales last year, according to market research firm Circana. Sales of e-bikes — which are much pricier than traditional bicycles — outperformed the overall bike market in 2022 in terms of sales growth, growing 14% while total bike sales declined by 12%, according to Circana.
“There was a lot of interest in riding, and we’ve actually seen that interest and rider participation continue as we move out of the height of the pandemic,” Ash Lovell, electric bicycle policy and campaign director for the advocacy group PeopleForBikes, told ABC News. “We want to keep them riding and we want to give them more opportunities and more places to ride.”
As interest in e-bikes has grown as an eco-friendly means for travel and hauling cargo, so have ways to make them more accessible. At the city and state levels, governments are finding ways to make e-bikes more affordable through incentive programs. Building off those local efforts, federal lawmakers recently reintroduced a bill that would give consumers a tax break on the purchase of a new e-bike. The Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment Act would offer a refundable tax credit amounting to 30% of the e-bike’s price, capped at $1,500.
Other legislation has been aimed at safety. Last month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed a package of e-bike safety legislation that also sets new standards for e-mobility devices such as e-bikes, including that any micro-mobility device meets standards set by UL Solutions, an industry leader in battery technology. The move came after New York saw 219 fires related to e-bikes in 2022, causing 147 injuries and six deaths.
“This is a real issue and it could jeopardize the safety of you or your family,” Adams recently told “Good Morning America.” “We must educate people.”
If new to e-bikes, here’s what to know.
Are e-bikes safe? Role of battery certification
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are found in everyday items, from cellphones to laptops, as well as e-mobility devices like e-bikes and e-scooters. Though generally safe, they carry with them a fire risk if abused or not high-quality.
“There’s a lot of energy being condensed into a very small battery,” Steve Kerber, vice president and executive director of UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute, which performs testing and research around fire safety risks, including hazards associated with lithium-ion batteries, told ABC News.
Uncertified batteries are one of the factors that impact the likelihood of a lithium-ion battery failure, according to the institute. A major component of certification criteria is making sure the battery management system is sending the right signals to tell the battery to stop charging. A faulty system could lead to what’s known as a thermal runaway, causing a battery to overheat and possibly explode.
“If you go to purchase an e-bike, you should be able to get one that’s certified by a nationally recognized testing lab,” Kerber said.
Can you pedal? Understanding e-bike classes
Anyone looking to buy an e-bike should also familiarize themselves with the three-class system for electric bikes, which has been adopted by 40 states, Lovell said.
“It really defines what an electric bicycle is and what it isn’t,” Lovell said.
Typically, class 1, the most common type of e-bike, means an e-bike where the motor is engaged by pedaling — or pedal-assist — and can provide assistance up to 20 mph; class 2 means an e-bike where the motor can be engaged through a throttle and can assist up to 20 mph without pedaling; and class 3 means a pedal-assist e-bike where the motor can provide assistance up to 28 mph.
E-bikes typically start around $1,000, while a more high-end model could cost upward of $12,000. Lovell recommends trying out different models before purchasing.
“There’s actually inventory now — there wasn’t during a lot of the pandemic,” Lovell said. “So this is a really good time to try out a few models to figure out which one works right for you.”
Best e-bike battery practices
Rare, but at times deadly, fires due to e-bikes have helped raise awareness about best practices, particularly in New York City, Kerber said. Though elsewhere “we’ve got a bigger lift,” he said.
“We need to make sure that people hear this message before the incidents are happening,” Kerber said. “We need to learn from the failures that are happening so we don’t repeat those and a lot of times it does come down to public education. It comes down to people being smart with their devices and knowing what to look for — whether it’s cellphones, laptops, tablets, scooters — I mean everything has lithium-ion batteries in it now.”
E-bike users should read their instruction manual to ensure they are following best practices for charging and storing their device, Kerber said.
In addition to uncertified batteries, other factors that increase the likelihood of battery failure include battery abuse, modifications and mismatched parts — such as using a charger that is incompatible with the battery — according to UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute. If the battery and charging cord are incompatible, the battery could overcharge and lead to a “pretty catastrophic failure and thermal runaway,” Kerber said.
Among other best practices, people should avoid charging their e-bike when they’re asleep and not charge it in a path of escape, Kerber said. They should also keep the battery at room temperature and not tinker with the battery system themselves. An odor, changing color, leak or weird noises are all signs to “get out of your house” and call 911 to have the fire department investigate, Kerber said.
Lithium-ion batteries — whether in e-bikes or other devices — also need to be recycled properly.
“You can’t throw them away,” Kerber said. “We’ve seen a number of garbage truck fires … because people will just throw some of these things in the trash.”
E-bike rider restrictions, safety and etiquette
When considering an e-bike, it will be helpful to know where you are allowed to ride it in your state.
“It’s up to local municipalities to determine if they are open to having e-bikes on their trails and multi-use paths,” Lovell said.
States may have other restrictions on e-bike usage, such as age minimums.
Riders, especially first-time cyclists, should brush up on biking etiquette and safety, such as how to ride with a group, said Lovell.
“What we found during the pandemic is that a lot of people who are riding and ordering electric bicycles haven’t ridden a traditional bike before,” Lovell said. “So they don’t really have the education or the etiquette training on here’s how you signal, here’s what you should do in a crowded multi-use path, how’s how to store your bike, here’s when you should take it in to be serviced.”
Given the continued interest in e-bikes, PeopleForBikes and the League of American Bicyclists plan to launch an e-bike rider-specific safety curriculum in July that will feature guidance on “responsible e-bike ownership,” including roadway positioning, sharing the trail, riding predictably and other safe practices.
(LONDON) — Police in Australia have urgently appealed to the public to help find a man who allegedly took a platypus from its natural environment and onto a train where he showed it off to fellow commuters.
The incident occurred on Tuesday morning at approximately 11 a.m. local time when surveillance cameras caught a man and a friend boarding a train at Morayfiled Station in Queensland, Australia, with a platypus wrapped in a towel, according to Queensland Police.
Authorities say the man holding the platypus was “patting it and showing it to fellow commuters” while they made their way toward the town of Caboolture. It is believed the man came across the animal somewhere in the Moreton district of Queensland and that he stole it from its natural environment.
“The animal may become sick, be diseased or die the longer is it out of the wild and should not be fed or introduced to a new environment,” Queensland Police said. “It may also have venomous spurs which can cause significant injury to people and animals.”
Officials from Queensland Police and Australia’s Department of Environment and Science made a joint appeal to the public for the animal’s surrender to a veterinarian’s office or police station as soon as possible.
“The animal’s timely surrender will ensure its welfare,” Queensland Police said in their statement. “The unlawful take and keep of a Platypus from the wild is a Class 1 offence under section 88 of the Nature Conservation Act 1992, that carries a maximum penalty of $431,250.”
The platypus’s conservation status is officially listed as “Near Threatened” both in Australia and internationally and it is believed that only 30,000 to 300,000 live in Australia, according to the Australian Platypus Conservancy.
The platypus — along with the echidna — are the only mammals in the world that that lay eggs, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The water-loving monotreme usually live alone in burrows they build by the banks of creeks, rivers or ponds and survive by eating shrimp, swimming beetles, water bugs and tadpoles.
Male platypuses are venomous and have a hollow spur on each hind leg connected to a venom secreting gland, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
While their venom is lethal, however, there have been no recorded deaths from platypuses or platypus stings.
(BOISE, Idaho) — Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill into law on Wednesday that makes it illegal for an adult to help a minor get an abortion across state lines without parental consent.
The new law is the first of its kind in the United States and comes less than a year after Idaho banned nearly all abortions.
“With the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade last summer, the right and duty to establish legal policy on abortion was finally returned to our state democratic process,” Little, a Republican, wrote in a letter to Idaho lawmakers on Wednesday, announcing he had signed the legislation.
The text of House Bill 242, which was first introduced to the Idaho Legislature in February, lays out a new crime of “abortion trafficking,” in which an adult helps a pregnant, unemancipated minor obtain an abortion or abortion pills “by recruiting, harboring or transporting” them without the consent of their parent or guardian. Anyone who is found guilty of committing the crime will face two to five years in prison and could also be sued by the minor’s parent or guardian. A parent or guardian who raped their child will not be allowed to sue.
The legislation allows an affirmative defense to prosecution — an opportunity for a defendant to present evidence in court that could negate liability — if “a parent or guardian of the pregnant minor consented to trafficking of the minor,” unless the abortion provider was located in another state.
In his letter, Little clarified that the new law “does not criminalize, preclude or otherwise impair interstate travel, nor does it limit an adult woman from obtaining an abortion in another state.”
“Rather, the ‘abortion trafficking’ provision in the bill seeks only to prevent unemancipated minor girls from being taken across state lines for an abortion without the knowledge and consent of her parent or guardian,” he wrote.
Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates West, a nonprofit advocating for reproductive rights in the states of Hawaii, Idaho and Washington, took to Twitter on Wednesday to vow to challenge Idaho’s new law in court.
“Yet again, Idaho’s governor disregarded constituents and signed HB 242 into law, creating the nation’s first crime of so-called ‘abortion trafficking,'” the group tweeted. “This legislation is despicable, and we’re going to do everything in our power to stop it.”
Two weeks ago, Idaho became the first U.S. state to enact a law modeled after recent legislation passed in Texas that bans abortions after six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. The Idaho law allows for exceptions in the case of rape, incest or a medical emergency, but women are required to file a police report and show it to the medical provider before the abortion. The legislation also allows the father, grandparents, siblings, uncles or aunts of the fetus to sue a medical provider who performs the procedure.
ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
(TEXAS) — As Miah Cerrillo and Khloie Torres made their way to the stage at the Galveston Island Ballroom in Galveston Texas, the entire convention erupted in a standing ovation.
The two 11-year-old students—who called 911 during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas—were honored with the Kid Hero Award at the 2023 Texas Public Safety Conference in Galveston, Texas. The event is set up by the Texas chapters of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO).
The award comes nearly a year after 19 children and two teachers were shot to death by an 18-year-old former Robb Elementary student, who attacked the school on May 24, 2022. Cerrillo and Torres placed calls to police from inside classroom 112, where the gunman killed their friends and teachers.
Cindy McCraw, Texas NENA President, told ABC News that the Kid Hero Award is typically given to a single child, but an exception was made this year to recognize both Cerrillo and Torres.
“This was so important that I felt that both girls needed to be nominated,” she said.
McCraw said that by taking action to call 911 during the shooting, Cerrillo and Torres didn’t just save themselves, they also saved other lives.
“The fact that they even remembered to call 911, that’s a big deal,” she said. “They could have frozen, they could have waited until everything was done and then called, or just waited for somebody to come, and they just didn’t freeze, they acted, and that right there is heroic.”
Abigale Veloz, Cerrillo’s mother, said she felt emotional about the recognition her daughter received.
“As Miah’s mother, I feel very proud, she’s a strong person, awesome daughter and a wonderful sister,” she said. “She will forever be my miracle baby. She has fought for her life her whole life since she was born, and she will continue. The good thing is that she does not fight alone, she has her whole family to fight with her and protect her.”
Parts of the 911 audio in which Torres is heard, were broadcast by ABC News in February with permission from her parents. In the audio, Torres urges the 911 operator to send police into the classroom.
“Please hurry, there’s a lot of dead bodies,” Torres said in the 911 call. “Please, I’m going to die.”
McCraw, who heard the 911 calls, emphasized their emotional impact.
“Listening to it just gives you chills, the whole thing is devastating,” McCraw said. “I’ve been doing this for 22 years and I’ve listened to a lot of audio throughout the years of active shooters, kid callers and different horrible things that have been called in and recorded, but it’s still very emotional.”
Moments before the awards ceremony, McCraw coordinated a meeting between the two survivors and the 911 dispatcher who was on the phone with them that day. The meeting, which was private, was a profound experience for the girls and their families.
“They seemed to appreciate the chance to meet, and I can only hope that it has provided them with the closure they needed,” McCraw said.
McCraw hopes it helps everyone involved.
“I just didn’t want that to be a void forever, it brings closure to both parties,” McCraw said. “The girls will never wonder what the person on the other line looks like, and hopefully that fills that void and brings closure to them as they go through their healing process.”
(NEW YORK) — Police departments across the country are facing a “vicious cycle” of retirements, resignations, and fewer hires, according to policing experts, leaving the communities they protect with understaffed departments and potentially underqualified officers.
A survey released on April 1 from the Police Executive Research Forum of 182 law enforcement agencies indicated that while police departments are recruiting more officers compared to a 2020 decrease, departments have seen 47% more resignations and 19% more retirements in 2022 compared to 2019.
“There’s a vicious cycle of it getting worse,” John Jay professor and former police officer Peter Moskos said.
Law enforcement experts expressed concern that due to increased challenges in recruiting fresh candidates and spiking rates of retirements and resignations, departments cannot hire and train enough officers to make up for the departing officers. The staffing crunch may leave departments with fewer candidates, less qualified candidates, and fewer officers on call to respond to emergencies.
“If you don’t have enough cops, at some point, you’re going to have an active shooter situation where police response is critical, and getting there a minute later could cost you 20 or 50 lives,” PERF executive director Chuck Wexler said.
Multiple experts attribute the recruiting challenge – that fewer people are willing to be police officers in 2023 – to increased external scrutiny and reputational harm to the overall profession. Some note that the lack of job flexibility, demanding hours, and the need to work on holidays (especially for junior officers) contribute to the crisis.
“Media coverage has led many young people to view police differently than their parents’ generation may have,” International Association of Chiefs of Police president John Letteney said. “And a lot of officers think their job has gotten more difficult since high profile use of force incidents.”
While the scrutiny lessens the total number of potential officers, the disincentive to pursue law enforcement due to that scrutiny can create a net positive by limiting the applicant pool to candidates who would be willing to approach the modern challenges of policing.
“I’ve told myself countless times that I would rather have a vacant position than put the wrong person wearing a police officer’s uniform and badge,” Letteney added.
According to Yale Law professor James Forman, departments could serve their communities best if they took an active approach to community policing rather than recruiting officers who desire to engage in a “heavy-handed aggressive policing” that makes excessive force and brutality “inevitable.”
“[Police departments] have to send the message from the beginning of the kind of policing that they want in their community — that they are looking for people who want to be community caretakers they want, they are looking for people that want to help communities grow and thrive,” he said.
Regardless of the larger goals, the current market for law enforcement officers does not appear to satisfy the hiring demand.
A survey of police departments from the International Association of Chiefs of Police, conducted in 2019 before the availability of officers worsened, found that 78% of agencies reported issues recruiting qualified candidates. Fifty percent of agencies changed their internal policies to gain qualified candidates, and 25% said they eliminated services, units, or positions due to the inability to staff their departments adequately.
The persistent demand for officers and limited pool of qualified candidates can create a bidding war between departments, often leading to the wealthiest departments winning out.
That cost dilemma creates a concern for East Cleveland chief of police Brian Gerhard, who does not want his police force to become a “second-chance department.”
Prosecutors indicted 10 active-duty officers over the last three years, as well as the former police chief, leaving Gerhard’s department with 30 officers. He wants to have 50 quality officers, though his city’s charter permits up to 72 officers.
When asked about the bodycam video of officers abusing and assaulting residents circulated in the media and online, Gerhard admitted, “It looks horrible, period;” however, he said he is committed to “rebuilding” his department. Case in point, Gerhard told ABC News that he wants to hire capable and qualified recruits, not more attainable officers seeking a “second chance” after leaving or being fired by other departments. Financial considerations make this goal challenging, if not time-consuming.
Two of Gerhard’s recent hires left the East Cleveland Police Department after less than a year for higher-paying jobs. He noted that he’s limited to paying $17.27 an hour, though it is set to increase to $19.19 an hour.
Regardless of the pay hike, Gerhard was assured, “They’re gonna make substantially more money than we have.”
For example, the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., began offering $20,000 signing bonuses for new officers in 2023.
“There’s also a dual-edged sword of signing bonuses and better pay like you want to be able to recruit to have some parity, but you don’t want people becoming cops just for the signing bonus,” Moskos said.
Departments like suburban New York’s Nassau County Police Department boasts an average salary for officers after nine years of $121,659, an enticing offer to pull successful officers from the New York Police Department.
Poaching efforts from wealthier departments can also damage police forces by pulling officers from their jobs just as evidence suggests they become fully effective after five to seven years of service, according to Letteney. Moskos added that these wealthier departments also have the luxury of hiring applicants with clean records while leaving behind potentially problematic officers.
All of these factors create an overall challenging environment for departments to be able to recruit with an eye towards reform or even retain their ranks.
“If you walk into a room of police officers, or chiefs, and they’re really being honest with you, say, ‘How many of you would like your kids to be cops,’ very few will raise their hands,” Letteney said.
(WASHINGTON) — A Thursday report that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted luxury travel and hospitality perks from a billionaire Republican donor was met with both renewed criticism of how the justices self-police and renewed calls for oversight and the impeachment of the embattled conservative.
The controversy was touched off by a ProPublica story describing how Thomas and his wife, Ginni, a conservative activist, were treated to high-end vacations and private jet travel subsidized by Dallas-based businessman Harlan Crow, who has a record of contributing millions to Republican candidates and causes.
Thomas did not report the gifts on his annual financial disclosure filings, according to ProPublica — an omission that ethics experts say violates a code of conduct for federal officials.
Neither Thomas nor the Supreme Court and its counsel have responded to ABC News’ request for comment on the report and questions about the apparent disclosure oversight and whether Thomas’ reports will be amended.
Crow is not said to have any direct connection to business before the court and no apparent alleged conflict of interest on that level, but he is deeply connected to GOP politics and, according to ProPublica’s reporting, regularly includes conservative power players in gatherings with Thomas.
While Supreme Court justices are expected to follow a federal judicial code of ethics, there is no requirement that they do so and no independent oversight of compliance.
In a statement, Crow insisted he “never” spoke with Thomas about a Supreme Court case. But that hasn’t stopped the criticism, largely from the left and from advocates for judicial reform.
“If the information in this report is correct … and if the point of the United States judiciary is still to neutrally interpret and uphold the law, then it is obvious what should happen next,” Jeff Hauser, executive director of the progressive group Revolving Door Project, said in a statement. “The House of Representatives must immediately draw articles of impeachment against Justice Clarence Thomas.”
Some progressive lawmakers have joined in pushing for Thomas’ removal. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on Twitter that “this degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”
Only one Supreme Court justice in the country’s history has been impeached: Samuel Chase, in 1804, for allegedly refusing to dismiss biased jurors from a politically sensitive case. Political realities in 2023 cast doubt on the likelihood of a similar fate for Thomas, with Republicans now in control of the House. Beyond impeachment, a trial in the Senate, currently held 51-49 by Democrats, would require more than a dozen conservatives to join in voting against Thomas.
The justice has long attracted scrutiny for his close ties with Republican political figures and has faced unreported financial engagements in the past. But the new ProPublica report, which examined 20 years’ worth of unreported gifts, broke new ground.
According to ProPublica, Crow bankrolled transportation and accommodations for Thomas and his wife to far-flung destinations like Indonesia and New Zealand. These vacations and others to Crow’s own properties reportedly included lavish trimmings, including use of billionaire’s private jet, yacht and chef.
Crow, a prolific Republican donor who amassed a fortune in real estate, has given tens of millions of dollars to various Republican candidates and political groups at the federal level, according to public campaign finance databases. He has been a particularly generous donor to super PACs linked to Republican leadership in Congress, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on those groups almost every election cycle.
In a statement to ABC News, Crow acknowledged his friendship with the Thomases but denied any implication that his behavior amounted to anything more than “a gathering of friends.”
“Justice Thomas and Ginni never asked for any of this hospitality,” Crow said. “We have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.”
Other voices stopped short of calling for Thomas’ impeachment, instead using ProPublica’s reporting as an opportunity to call attention to the lax rules governing Supreme Court justices’ personal conduct.
Gabe Roth, executive director of the nonpartisan watchdog group Fix the Court, said ProPublica’s findings highlight a troubling reality: “The Supreme Court is the least accountable part of our government.”
Roth and others have advocated for legislation imposing stricter guidelines on financial disclosures and other mechanisms to ensure sufficient oversight of justices who wield broad power to check presidential and congressional authority and, unlike other branches of government, serve lifetime terms.
Congressional Democrats have for years been trying to pass legislation that would implement an enforceable code of conduct on the nine justices. In the wake of the ProPublica story, Senate Democrats once urged passage of the Supreme Court Ethics Act, which has been sponsored by Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy every year in Congress for more than a decade.
Later Thursday, the White House declined to weigh in. “There are other bodies of government that should be dealing with this,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Illinois’ Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, characterized Thomas’ behavior as “simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court.”
“The Pro Publica report is a call to action,” Durbin said in a statement on Thursday, “and the Senate Judiciary Committee will act.”
ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The new director of a Department of Justice office that financially supports police departments nationwide says that community engagement is what defines successful law enforcement. And he knows from experience.
Before being chosen to head the Community Oriented Policing Services within the DOJ, Hugh Clements was the chief of police in Providence, Rhode Island. With more than 34 years in policing, Clements told ABC News that his time as an officer and as a leader serves him well in understanding what agencies go through on a daily basis and what funding they need.
“The position is almost tailor-made for a police chief who’s done it in the field,” Clements said. He said he’s previously been the “beneficiary” of the “great programs” from COPS.
“I was one of the practitioners in the field doing the work in the community and having a great degree of success in making that community a safer place,” he said.
The main role of COPS is to dole out federal funds to police departments around the country for a variety of issues. The biggest pot of money is for hiring officers.
Clements said that 13,000 of the 18,000 police departments in the country have been given a grant from COPS for one issue or another, whether it be for staffing or a program to decrease violent crime.
Clements began his own leadership career in policing as a district commander with Providence police and worked his way up. When he started, he said the department was more traditional but as time went on, community policing became more of a focus.
“I never aspired to be the chief of police but I had a great passion for the community that I worked in and we became enmeshed in the community,” he said. In his view, there are many ways to define community policing — though it all ultimately boils down to what works for locals.
“For a police department to be effective in their community, for them to have better outcomes in their community, they have to be so connected to that community, they have to be engaged,” he said.
DOJ recently tasked COPS with looking into the Memphis, Tennessee, Police Department’s use of force and deescalation policies as well as a separate review of specialized units across the country, in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death after he was beaten by officers during a traffic stop in January.
Five officers from the now-disbanded “Scorpion Unit” in Memphis are charged with murder in Nichols’ death. They have pleaded not guilty.
Clements said that a review in general of specialized units asks whether or not the police department needs that group, what the accountability procedures are for those officers and how effective they are. A major part of review is also talking to subject-matter experts about the situation.
“We’ll be doing a larger look nationally at what type of oversight there should be, what type of accountability [there is] in allowing these units to be involved in your police work,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — With strikes raging throughout France in response to a push to raise the nation’s retirement age, government officials across the Atlantic Ocean may want to take steps to avoid similar chaos in the event that Social Security becomes insolvent.
Last-ditch talks between Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and leaders of France’s largest trade unions faltered on Wednesday. Union representatives emerged after less than an hour deeming the meeting a “failure” and calling on the public to join Thursday’s strike.
Millions have taken to the streets in recent months in opposition to the pension reform, with protests at times shutting down schools, public transit and iconic cultural attractions like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Mounds of garbage piled up on the sidewalks and were set ablaze. Violent clashes have been documented between demonstrators and police.
Frédéric Souillot, the secretary general of the Force Ouvrière trade union, warned Wednesday they were “more determined than ever” ahead of the new wave of protests.
But France is not the only nation grappling with a financial dilemma. The United States will soon have to address the holes threatening to sink its own retirement system.
Social Security, the popular program on which 67 million Americans rely for monthly payments, faces long-term solvency issues that could result in benefit reductions within the next decade. U.S. lawmakers will soon have to act on Social Security, despite its status as the “third rail” in American politics — as in “touch it at your own peril.”
The trust fund that pays retirees is estimated to run dry by 2033, a year earlier than previously predicted, according to a report released last week from its board of trustees. If no solution is reached by then, the program would only be able to pay out 77% of scheduled benefits.
“We face the same demographic challenges here that France is facing,” Richard Johnson, the director of the Urban Institute’s Program on Retirement Policy, told ABC News. “There will be more retirees per worker in the future than we have today. That’s the challenge.”
What can America learn from France’s upheaval? Here are steps experts say U.S. officials can take in an effort to avoid the same fate.
Negotiate with the labor movement
France’s retirement age hike incensed the nation’s labor movement, which argued the measure unfairly burdened blue-collar workers in physically demanding jobs. The move is opposed by younger and older citizens alike.
French President Emmanuel Macron argued the new law — which raises the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 — was necessary for the survival of the country’s pension system. He pushed the deeply unpopular measure forward by shunning Parliament and invoking a special constitutional power.
Jean Garrigues, a leading French historian, said Macron made two “bad mistakes” during the ordeal: not negotiating with the labor movement and using what many see as an undemocratic tool to get the measure adopted.
“A lot of people accuse Emmanuel Macron of being responsible for all this violence,” Garrigues told ABC News.
Strive for fairness in readjusting the system
Both France and the U.S. have pay-as-you go systems that are strained by the collapsing ratio of working people to retirees. President Joe Biden and Republicans have clashed several times over how to address the disparate numbers of people in different generations.
Some Republicans have floated raising the full retirement age to 70 and making benefit changes to high-earning Americans to bring the system into balance. Democrats have generally proposed expanding benefits and raising taxes on the wealthy.
Rich Fiesta, the executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said he would “urge caution” to lawmakers who want to raise the full retirement age in the U.S. beyond 67.
“That’s the one thing that is universally not well regarded by the American public,” he said.
Macron’s critics have argued the funding for pensions could’ve come from another source, such as tax increases, without forcing people to retire later.
“Part of the protests in France is this idea of how we should be distributing the pain of adjusting the retirement system,” Johnson said.
That idea will likely be a key point of debate as the U.S. continues to debate Social Security.
“When we look at the solution that the French have come up with, which is increasing the retirement age, there are some questions about the fairness of doing that,” Johnson said. He noted those in physically demanding jobs may not be able to work longer and older people who lose their jobs may have trouble getting reemployed.
“Is that the most fair kind of change that we should make to Social Security? Should we ask wealthier people to pay more into the system? That’s something that the French haven’t done, and we’re seeing street protests.”
Make changes gradually
The last time the U.S. increased the retirement age for Social Security was in 1983, but the change happened gradually over several decades.
By contrast, France’s new retirement age will be fully implemented by 2030 — just seven years away.
“You want to give people time to adjust,” Johnson said. “It’s important to start thinking about change long before the system is in crisis. What we’re seeing in France is the importance of planning ahead, so we don’t have to make quick changes.”
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — The Republican-led Tennessee House of Representatives scheduled a vote to expel three Democratic members on Thursday over their involvement in a gun control protest last week following the Nashville school shooting.
Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson have said they have no regrets about speaking out against gun violence and calling on their colleagues to do more to enact laws that crack down on gun access.
Pearson told ABC News’ “Start Here,” before the vote that he and his colleagues were never allowed to speak out on behalf of their constituents, many of whom are demanding common sense gun reform, and dismissed the GOP member’s arguments that they violated the chamber’s rules of decorum.
“The people elected us, not our colleagues,” he told “Start Here.” “That is not the status quo. None of us expected that we had broken a rule that could lead to our expulsion.”
Each elected official has had deep ties to the state’s politics and has been vocal about their support for gun control.
Gloria Johnson
Johnson, 60, was born in Colorado and moved several times during her youth for her father’s work with the FBI until she was in seventh grade when her family, which had long Tennessee roots, settled in Knoxville, according to her official campaign bio.
She graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with an education degree and taught elementary and high school classes for several years. In addition to teaching, Johnson was active in local politics, helping with some field campaigns for Democratic elected officials, her bio said.
She was Knox County Democratic Party chairwoman in 2009. Three years later, Johnson was first elected to the Tennessee House representing the 13th district, which covered Knoxville.
She was defeated in the 2014 election by Republican Eddie Smith but in 2018 she regained her seat in a rematch with Smith.
Johnson, who is a gun owner, has made gun safety a top priority.
“As someone who worked in a classroom where we lost one of our students, you never forget the faces, the people, the children, and the traumatic experience. And we do not want that to happen to another child and another school,” she told ABC News.
Justin Jones
Jones, 27, was born in Oakland, California, and said he has been active in political movements since he was a teenager.
In high school, he organized rallies to speak out against “stand your ground laws” following Trayvon Martin’s death, according to his campaign bio.
He began attending Fisk University in Tennessee in 2013 and continued to take part in political activism, including a 62-day sit-in outside the Tennessee State House in protest of the controversial Dakota Pipeline construction at Standing Rock.
After graduating from the university with a degree in political science, Jones continued to work with local community activist groups, including the Tennessee Healthcare Campaign, a non-profit that advocates for affordable healthcare for all state residents.
Jones ran for office last year for the open house seat for Tennessee’s 52nd district, which includes Nashville. He had no opponents in the general election.
Jones has kept gun control at the forefront of his agenda and has repeatedly called out his Republican colleagues on their bills to loosen the state’s firearm restrictions.
“There comes a time when you have to do something out of the ordinary. We occupied the House floor today after repeatedly being silenced from talking about the crisis of mass shootings,” he tweeted before the March 30 protest.
Justin Pearson
Pearson, 27, was born and raised in Memphis and graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine with a degree in government & legal studies and education studies, according to his campaign bio.
Pearson was part of several community organizing groups, including Memphis Community Against Pollution and the Poor People’s Campaign: National Call for Moral Revival, his bio said.
After years of political work in the non-profit sector, Pearson officially became an elected member of the Tennessee House this year in a special election to replace Barbara Cooper, the 86th district’s representative who died in October 2022.
Pearson told “Start Here” he recently lost a classmate to gun violence. He noted that murders in his district are up 44% this year compared to last year.
“I think about responsibility as an elected official and the care and compassion that we should just have as people, those are together,” Pearson said.
Pearson said he and his fellow Democratic colleagues are speaking with attorneys about their next move but vowed to continue speaking out.
“Our work is not ending today. Our work is continuing,” he said.
ABC News’ Brad Mielke and Amanda Su contributed to this report.
