Featured Story
South Los Angeles is home to the highest levels of gun violence in the county — and the trauma of frequent shootings can be profoundly damaging to the area’s kids. To help, the City Attorney’s Office and the LAPD’s community policing bureau have partnered with local organizations to provide mental health support, crisis response, and other services to families touched by gun violence. [The Guardian]
Chicago
In February, Chicago’s mayor announced plans to decommission ShotSpotter, a controversial gunshot-detection technology that alerts police to shootings throughout the city. A growing body of research has raised questions about not only the technology’s efficacy, but also the ethics of its use.
But the City Council’s next move, passing a symbolic measure to wrest control of the tool away from the mayor, turned the debate into a municipal power struggle, The Trace’s Justin Agrelo reports.
“It’s been hard to change ShotSpotter because of all of the different ways that the police … are shielded,” Robert Vargas, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, said. “The whole debate over ShotSpotter is a microcosm of this. What was at stake here is far bigger.”
In his latest story, Agrelo explores how this could shape the future of public safety in Chicago.
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What to Know Today
Sixteen New York City organizations are receiving a combined $6.5 million over the next year to bolster public safety using restorative justice. The money will go toward programs for teenagers arrested on gun charges, domestic violence survivors, and people with addiction. That’s in addition to city funding for groups to help schools and violence interrupters implement restorative practices. [Gothamist]
In June, Billy Daniel López García, his father, and a family friend were shot and killed by two armed men at their family grocery store, Tienda Los Hermanos, in Montgomery, Alabama. Though the shooting shocked many in the city, it wasn’t the first time a business owned by Latino people had been targeted by violent, armed intruders. Residents say the problem is made worse by slow police response times and a lack of Spanish-speaking officers. [The New York Times]
During a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told lawmakers that the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally was the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades. Lawmakers had some testy exchanges with Cheatle, including one stemming from a question about whether guns in America make the agency’s job “easier or harder” from Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly. (Connolly said Cheatle avoided his question: “We live with the threat of violence, but a simple answer from the director of the Secret Service would [help] and I’m sorry you’ve chosen to evade it.”) Some Democrats are joining Republicans in calling for Cheatle to resign. [Politico/CNN]
Virginia-based political action committee Make Liberty Win has sent inaccurate information to voters all over one Wyoming state Senate district: A political mailer for Keith Kennedy, the Wyoming Senate candidate, features a picture of a Virginia politico of the same name and states that Kennedy is “the ONLY 100% pro-gun candidate in the race.” Kennedy’s primary opponent is a lifelong hunter, concealed-carry permit holder, and member of a local rifle range. [WyoFile]
Data Point
Nearly 300 — the number of robberies in Montgomery, Alabama, in the first half of this year. There were around 400 robberies there in all of 2023. [The New York Times]