Topics include:
- Wawa coming soon to Bypass
- Jointure will allow 5G antennas
- NAACP race and policing report
- ED streetlight payback period disputed
- more...
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Newtown News of Interest
These Scoops are excerpts from articles published in local newspapers and other sources that may be of interest to Newtown area residents. Please click on the "From" link to access the full original article. Any opinions and "insights" appended to these article summaries are solely those of John Mack and do not represent the opinions of any other person or entity. Curated by johnmacknewtown |
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Topics include:
Read the entire issue online here: https://www.johnmacknewtown.info/noimar24.html
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This is my personal summary of the February 28, 2024, meeting of the #NewtownPA Township Board of Supervisors (BOS). This is not a complete nor an official summary.
On February 10, 2024, Mike Dalewitz officially submitted via email his request to be appointed to the Commission. Mr. Dalewitz is the co-owner of the Borscht Belt Deli located in Newtown Township.
My understanding was that Mr. Dalewitz’s appointment vote would be on the agenda of this BOS meeting, but it has been delayed. Nevertheless, since the next HRC meeting is March 21, 2024, it is still possible to bring this up for a vote at the next BOS meeting on March 13, 2024.
Scooped by johnmacknewtown |
It seems that Bucks County Commissioners intend to approve a $25,995 contract with facial recognition technology company Clearview AI to provide assistive technology for law enforcement.
Nearly 70 immigrant rights, civil liberties and privacy groups are currently calling on the Department of Homeland Security to 'immediately stop' using [facial recognition] technology (source) amid massive privacy concerns and accusations of racial bias with the software, leading to wrongful arrests.
The Bucks County Commissioners will meet at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at the Bucks County Administration Building, 55 E. Court St., Doylestown. The meeting will be live-streamed on the Bucks County Government Facebook page and archived there for later viewing.The approval is one of the first items on Wednesday's agenda.
If the use of this technology by the Newtown Township Police Department came up for a vote by Supervisors, I would oppose it!
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Scooped by johnmacknewtown |
Racial bias in traffic stops has been a focus of researchers and civil rights advocates for years. At Stanford University’s Open Policing Project, researchers analyzing more than 100 million traffic stops around the country found persistent racial disparities, with Black and Hispanic drivers more likely to be stopped and more likely to be searched. Collectively, officers found contraband at a lower rate among those searches than in searches of white drivers.
Traffic stops also have the potential to escalate, like the case of Mr. Wright, who was shot by a police officer after he got back into his car as the police tried to arrest him for an unrelated warrant. The officer, Kimberly A. Potter, who had shouted that she was preparing to use her Taser, resigned and was charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Paige Fernandez, a policing policy advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union, said low-level infractions such as expired registrations and air fresheners on mirrors should not be handled by armed police officers.
“The danger that police traffic stops pose greatly outweighs any benefit of having them engage in that,” Ms. Fernandez said.
“Even if you are polite, calm, even college-educated, the bottom line is that at the end of the day you are still Black,” Mr. Taylor said. “That’s all the cop sees and stereotypes.”
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Rescooped by johnmacknewtown from Public Health & Safety |
The commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday that his department began collecting data during traffic stops at the beginning of the year as part of a program to identify any racial or ethnic disparities and recommend remedies if they do exist.
“Troopers take an oath to enforce the law ‘without any consideration of class, color, creed or condition,” and this data collection effort is one way to show the public we are upholding that oath,” Col. Robert Evanchick said in a statement.
“Regular and ongoing analysis by a neutral third party is a critical part of this program that emphasizes our department’s commitment to transparency and continuous improvement,” he said.
Evanchick said State Police will collect data for 30 fields, including driver and passenger ages, gender, race and ethnicity, as well the length of the stop, any searches and search results.
Data will be analyzed by University of Cincinnati researchers to determine patterns of racial or ethnic disparity any recommendations for changes to State Police policies or training, Evanchick said.
A final statistical analysis report will be released in April 2022, police said.
One topic related to this that of of interest to me is how to achieve more diversity in the hiring of Newtown police officers. This topic was brought up by Mr. McCarron, a Newtown Resident, at the January 13, 2021, BOS meeting. Listen to his comments.
It is also a topic of interest to the Newtown Human Relations Commission. Karen Downer, the President of the Bucks County NAACP will be a speaker at the Wednesday, February 17th (7pm) Zoom meeting of the NT HRC. She will talk with residents about the NAACP's efforts to Reimage Public Safety. Register for this meeting.
It is VERY timely to discuss this. See this article: "Pa. State Police Resume Collecting Racial, Ethnic Data During traffic Stops"; http://sco.lt/8IzfnM
NT HRC members alerted me to another article on this topic: "Highway ‘stop-and-frisk’: How Pennsylvania state troopers conduct illegal traffic searches"
At this time, the Newtown Police Department does not collect such information for all traffic stops unless it results in an arrest.
In 2020, the Newtown Police Department (NTPD) made 54 traffic stops due to vehicle "Code Violations." About one-third of these stops involved involved marijuana and nearly half resulted in DUI charges.