License plate flippers are commonly used for aesthetic purposes at auto shows, where they allow drivers to switch between custom or decorative plates. But across the country, thousands of drivers also flip or cover their license plates to evade detection — whether by law enforcement, toll systems or automated speed cameras.

Texas and Washington explicitly banned the devices in 2013. Nonetheless, it’s generally illegal across the United States to alter or obstruct a license plate, no matter the method.

In Tennessee, a law that went into effect in July bans the purchase, sale, possession of and manufacture of plate flippers. Lawmakers said they worried about drivers trying to evade law enforcement.

“We don’t have any toll roads today, but we do have criminals today,” Tennessee state Republican Rep. Greg Martin, who sponsored the legislation in the House, said in an interview. “This [measure] is to make sure that everyone is playing on the same playing field.”

Under the new law, anyone who purchases a license plate flipper could face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $500. Those caught manufacturing or selling these devices could face up to 11 months and 29 days in jail, along with a fine of up to $2,500.

The Pennsylvania House passed, with bipartisan support, legislation that would ban license plate flippers and impose a $2,000 penalty on those caught using or selling them. The bill now goes to the Senate.

“With speed cams and red-light cams becoming more and more prevalent around, there are technologies that are coming out for people to evade safety on the roads,” Pennsylvania state Democratic Rep. Pat Gallagher, the bill’s lead sponsor in the House, said in an interview.

Cities take action

Some cities also are looking to crack down on these devices.

In April, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, signed a bill into law banning the purchase, installation, possession of and sale of “manual, electric, or mechanical” license plate flippers, with violations punishable by a $2,000 fine.

“Tag flipping belongs in a James Bond movie, not on our city streets,” Philadelphia Councilmember Mike Driscoll, a Democrat, said in an interview with Stateline. “It’s not just a problem in the city of Philadelphia; this sense of entitlement and lawlessness is going on all over the country.

“Every municipality has got to take these things seriously,” Driscoll said.

In March, New York state and city officials launched a multi-agency task force dedicated to identifying and removing so-called “ghost cars” — vehicles that are untraceable by traffic cameras and toll readers due to their forged or altered license plates — from New York City streets.

In 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, reached an agreement with Amazon to help search for and restrict the sale of smokescreen and tinted license plate covers to customers with a New York state address. This collaboration followed the passage of a city law earlier that year prohibiting the sale of products designed to conceal or obscure vehicle license plates to New York City residents.

Criminal activity and toll revenue

Recent discussions around license plate flippers have largely focused on their role in criminal activity and the loss of revenue from tolls and traffic tickets.

Obstructing license plates is a common violation, with some drivers using plate flippers, duct tape or bogus paper tags to avoid detection. In some cases, the obstruction may be unintentional, such as when bike racks partially block the plate.

Chad Bruckner, a retired police detective who is now the president of the private investigation firm Intercounty Investigations & Solutions, said that while he supports legislation banning tag flippers, it’s important to balance protecting citizens’ rights with providing law enforcement the tools needed to promote public safety.

“If you can’t identify a vehicle, you don’t have the legal tooth or authority to execute a stop or something,” Bruckner said in an interview. “There’s just no law and order. That’s not safe for people.”

License plate flippers are widely accessible online, with devices available for as little as $50 and as much as a few hundred dollars, though most typically sell for around $200.

Other devices, such as license plate covers that obscure letters and numbers from certain angles, are already illegal in most states. These covers, whether clear or tinted, can affect visibility for traffic and tolling cameras.

Most tolling agencies aren’t significantly affected by these violations financially because the majority of drivers comply with the law. But MTA Bridges and Tunnels in New York City, one of the busiest toll agencies in the United States, reported a loss of more than $21 million in 2023 due to obstructed plates, a more than 140% increase from 2020, according to Aaron Donovan, the agency’s deputy communications director.

The agency projects a slightly lower revenue loss of nearly $19 million for 2024, thanks to the new task force dedicated to cracking down on untraceable vehicles. The task force has seized over 2,100 vehicles and made more than 450 arrests since mid-March. Those arrests often reveal that evaders are involved in other criminal activities, such as possessing illegal firearms or driving stolen vehicles, according to MTA Bridges and Tunnels President Catherine Sheridan.

“This is a larger regional issue where these same people who are avoiding tolls are also not paying parking tickets. They’re violating school cameras, speed cameras,” Sheridan said in an interview. “We’re also finding that these folks are committing other crimes in our region.”

The losses represent less than 1% of the agency’s total toll revenue, but they’re still significant, she said, because they reduce the agency’s ability to subsidize mass transit in New York City, which in turn affects residents who rely on public transportation.

“Every dollar we don’t collect is $1 off of that subsidy,” Sheridan said. “This is about everyone paying their fair share.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages several bridges and tunnels connecting the two states and is part of the multi-agency task force dedicated to cracking down on untraceable vehicles, lost about $40 million in toll revenue from obscured and missing plates in 2022, according to Lenis Valens, a public information officer with the agency.

In that same year, the agency issued more than 2,300 summonses for obstructed, missing and fictitious license plates, and recovered more than $21 million in past-due tolls and fees. In 2023, the agency recovered over $25 million from toll evaders. During the first six months of 2024, it issued 4,836 summonses for toll-related violations, with the majority — 3,940, or 81% — for obstructed, missing or fictitious license plates.

On the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a major toll highway that connects western and eastern Pennsylvania, at least 3 in 10,000 people intentionally obstructed their license plates between April 2023 and March 2024, press secretary Marissa Orbanek wrote in an email.

“While the percentage of intentional plate obstruction on the turnpike is very, very small, we are grateful for any additional support and legislation that helps us address toll evasion,” Orbanek said. “It’s really a priority to ensure a fair and equitable toll road system.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

But nearly a year later, colleges and agencies are recognizing the steep administrative challenge to winning approval from the U.S. Department of Education. So far, just one new program eligible for the federal financial aid grant — in California — has gotten off the ground.

“We’re going to see an impact — it’s coming. It’s been a bit slow to arrive because of this quality focus within the regulations,” said Ruth Delaney, who leads a program at the Vera Institute of Justice to help scale up college programs in correctional institutions. “What’s great is that there’s a lot of energy in colleges and corrections to start new prison education programs.”

Pell Grants were officially restored for incarcerated students in July 2023, following a nearly 30-year federal ban that prohibited most incarcerated students from receiving the aid. The ban was one of the provisions in the sweeping 1994 federal crime bill signed by President Bill Clinton.

More than 750,000 incarcerated students could potentially become eligible for Pell Grants. But to qualify, they must be below the family income limits and be at a prison that offers a college program approved by the federal Department of Education.

To date, only one program has been fully approved, at Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California. Students there will be eligible to receive Pell Grants starting next fall to study for a degree in communications from California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

Still, officials from state corrections agencies in Maryland, Michigan and Wisconsin told Stateline that since Pell dollars became available, more colleges and universities have become interested in establishing prison education programs. Since last summer, 44 state corrections agencies and the federal Bureau of Prisons have developed applications or other systems to approve prison education programs, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.

“There are people in prison who have been waiting 30 years for this opportunity to come back, and they are just so eager to enroll,” Delaney said in an interview. “Anything we can do to move quickly to get high-quality programs in place — that’s what we’d like to see.”

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State action

The Pell Grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, is provided to low-income students across the country to help cover college expenses. Most students apply online using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Incarcerated students are usually required to submit paper applications because internet access is restricted. The current maximum grant is $7,395 for a full academic year.

While states pay to house incarcerated people in their prison systems, many don’t pay for higher education; prison college programs often rely on alternative funding, such as donations and state grants. Some are a part of a federal pilot program called the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative, which has included about 40,000 incarcerated learners. Otherwise, students have to pay out of their own pockets or use scholarships and donations from nonprofits and colleges.

No matter how it’s paid for, the goal of providing college-level instruction in prisons is to make it easier for incarcerated people to reenter society once they are released and to connect them to meaningful, good-paying jobs.

“College saved my life. It was a place where I could be free. I could read, I could learn, and I could grow. It was very transformative for me, and I realized that my life wasn’t over,” said Alexa Garza, who obtained two associate degrees and a bachelor’s degree while incarcerated in Texas. Garza now works as a Texas policy analyst and higher education justice initiatives analyst for The Education Trust, an education access advocacy group.

Prison education advocates say it’s important for schools to expand the college experience in prison beyond just offering classes. That means fostering meaningful relationships between professors and students.

“I didn’t have family in the courtroom. I had professors in the courtroom,” said William Freeman, who served time in Maryland and now leads the Justice Policy Fellowship at The Education Trust. “Now, I’m a first-gen everything — college graduate, homeowner. I don’t think my parents ever made the kind of money I’m making now.”

Many state lawmakers have worked, with varying outcomes, to boost prison college programs in anticipation that Pell Grants could help more incarcerated students earn degrees.

In Washington state, for example, a law set to take effect in June will allow more incarcerated learners to seek both federal and state financial aid grants to cover the costs of postsecondary education programs.

Maryland’s legislature has sent Democratic Gov. Wes Moore a bill that would require that the state corrections department help incarcerated students in accessing Pell Grants and set goals for participation. Moore’s office said the legislation is under consideration.

A Florida bill that would have allowed students to be eligible for in-state tuition even if they had been incarcerated in the state in the past year made it out of House and Senate committees but was tabled before the legislature adjourned.

And in Montana, lawmakers grilled state corrections officials after a legislative audit found that prison education and workforce programs are limited, featuring long waitlists and inequitable access between private and public facilities.

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New programs and partnerships

Corrections agencies and colleges in several states have recently announced new partnerships, with some soon to become Pell-eligible.

Maryland’s corrections department recently announced a memorandum of understanding with the University System of Maryland to provide incarcerated students with the opportunity to obtain bachelor’s degrees or credit-based certificates from any of the 12 system universities. The university system will also be able to accept Pell Grants.

Danielle Cox, the state corrections department’s education director, said she aims to have a college or university program at every state facility by 2027.

In Utah, female incarcerated students at the Utah State Correctional Facility can apply to a new bachelor’s program at the University of Utah through the school’s Prison Education Project. At least 11 of 15 prospective students already have received their admissions decisions, according to Erin Castro, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Utah and co-founder of the Prison Education Project.

“This is the first time that the flagship public institution is admitting a currently incarcerated cohort,” Castro said.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and Southeast Community College are expanding their partnership to offer more higher education opportunities to students in five state facilities. The college enrolled 229 students this spring semester, and also is working on gaining the federal approval to offer Pell Grants as an official prison education program.

The college now offers an associate of arts degree in academic transfer, and in the fall will offer an associate of applied science in business and more career and technical education programs.

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Bureaucratic barriers

But navigating the new application process from the U.S. Department of Education has required significantly more administrative labor, some advocates say.

At least one university so far has decided to pull the plug on its prison education program. Georgia State University cited the feds’ new rules for Pell Grants and a $24 million budget cut as reasons to close its program this summer, according to Open Campus, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on higher ed. The program has been in operation since 2016.

“The shape and tenor of this new system is causing significant damage to the framework of college-in-prison,” Jessica Neptune, the director of national engagement for the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College in New York, wrote in an email to Stateline.

“Much of the recent policy work related to Pell, especially, is moving in a direction that makes it harder and harder for colleges to just be colleges and not criminal justice interventions,” she said.

The Department of Education did not directly respond to advocates’ concerns about the new application requirements, but said it held a “negotiated rulemaking process that enlisted significant stakeholder input to put forward the best regulations possible.”

Some prison education advocates also argue that the new bureaucratic process isolates the mission of educating incarcerated students from that of other students and encourages the “othering” of current or formerly incarcerated individuals.

“Whenever we are creating separate systems for individuals — particularly when they’re incarcerated — that reinforce processes, isolation and marginalization, it is not going to go well,” said Dyjuan Tatro, a senior government affairs officer with the Bard Prison Initiative and a Bard College alum.

“Incarcerated students should have the same access to Pell Grants, full stop, as any other students in this country,” Tatro said.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

Now, state legislators and some local and state agencies are turning back the dial, moving to relax the rules on high-speed vehicular pursuits largely because of concerns about crime, according to news reports and a review of testimony by Stateline.

A handful of jurisdictions have rolled back restrictions over the past year, including Florida, the District of Columbia, San Francisco and Washington state. On the other side, Michigan restricted chases, and Hawaii also is considering legislation that would set more restrictive statewide pursuit standards.

Policing experts suggest that state legislative changes nationwide have been influenced by various factors, such as political pressure or high-profile incidents. They expressed doubt that allowing more high-speed chases would significantly lower crime.

“Most people comply with the police voluntarily anyway, and most people are probably not aware of their local agencies’ pursuit policies,” Jacinta Gau, a criminal justice professor at the University of Central Florida and a police-community relations expert, told Stateline. “I don’t think it would have an appreciable impact on any sorts of crime.”

Some policing experts and former law enforcement officers say it’s important to strike a balance between apprehending potentially violent suspects and protecting the public from traffic accidents.

“It’s a very delicate balance,” said Rodney Bryant, a former Atlanta police chief, in an interview. Bryant is now the president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. “One of the things that chiefs or policymakers have to take into consideration as it relates to [pursuits] is what harm happens if the person is not caught right then. … And there’s also the victim’s perspective.”

In mid-March, aiming to limit chases, the Michigan State Police began restricting pursuits only to situations in which troopers have probable cause to believe the driver or occupant of a fleeing vehicle has committed a violent or life-threatening felony.

In contrast, the Florida Highway Patrol recently loosened its pursuit policy. Previously, chases were restricted to felony offenses, reckless driving or DUIs. The new policy grants officers more discretion to initiate chases, removes guidelines about following posted speed limits, authorizes troopers on motorcycles to participate in pursuits, and allows troopers to drive on the wrong side of the road or in the wrong direction.

The Florida Highway Patrol declined Stateline’s interview request, but the agency said in a statement that its troopers are “some of the most highly trained and experienced law enforcement officers in the nation when it comes to pursuit and vehicle operations.”

“While many states shy away from holding dangerous felons accountable for their decisions, the Florida Highway Patrol seeks to use every tool and tactic available to ensure dangerous felons end up in jail and off our streets,” the agency said in its statement.

In the District of Columbia and San Francisco, police department chase policies were changed through a major crime bill and a ballot measure, respectively.

In the District, officers will be able to begin pursuits if vehicle occupants pose an imminent threat to others. And in San Francisco, officers can initiate pursuits for any felony or “violent misdemeanors, including retail theft, vehicle theft and auto burglaries.”

Violent crime, which refers to offenses that involve force or the threat of force, across the United States decreased in 2022 — dropping to about the same level as before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the FBI’s annual crime report. Property crimes rose during the same period.

Most types of crime appear to be reverting toward pre-pandemic levels, according to a report earlier this year from the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank.

Still, some states and cities are experiencing upticks in specific offenses. In Washington state, for example, the violent crime rate in 2022 rose from 335.7 to 375.6 reported incidents per 100,000 people. That’s still below the national rate of 380.7 reported incidents per 100,000 people, according to the FBI.

The number of reported homicides in the state also reached a five-year high in 2022, and robberies surged by 18% compared with 2021, while law enforcement staffing continued to nosedive, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ annual crime report.

In early March, Washington state lawmakers approved a measure that came to the legislature in the form of a citizen initiative. Under the policy, law enforcement officers again may give chase when there is reasonable suspicion a person has violated a law. The policy, which will go into effect in June, allows individual police agencies to impose stricter pursuit rules.

“In June, I think we’re going to see an immediate effect on how crime is treated in Washington state, and we’re going to bend that curve downward,” said Washington state Sen. Keith Wagoner, a Republican who voted for the measure, in an interview.

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Washington state’s pursuit policy

Although Washington state’s revised pursuit policy offers greater flexibility in initiating chases, it still requires officers to determine that the potential danger to the public from letting the suspect go outweighs the risks of the chase itself.

The fleeing driver must be considered “a threat to the safety of others,” which is a lower standard than what’s outlined under the state’s current policy. The policy currently requires that the suspect must pose a “serious risk of harm to others.”

Until the new law takes effect, police chases are only allowed for certain crimes, including violent offenses, sex offenses, driving under the influence and escaping from prison or jail. Pursuits for lower-level crimes, such as property theft, are banned.

Following calls for increased police accountability, Washington state enacted its current law in 2021, about a year after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and amended it last year. Some police agencies and state legislators argued that the restrictions hampered officers’ ability to fight crime.

“It wasn’t great policy, kind of a knee-jerk reaction,” Wagoner said. “The bad guys were waiting at the starting line and there was a starting gun, and auto theft just skyrocketed and crimes associated with that took off.”

In 2022, the number of reported motor vehicle thefts jumped by more than a third over the previous year, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ annual crime reports. The Evergreen State had one of the highest rates of motor vehicle thefts in 2022 compared with other states, according to FBI crime data, a consistent trend since at least 1997.

Still, crime data is notoriously difficult to track and understand, and experts say anecdotal evidence on social media can heavily influence public perceptions of safety and crime.

Washington state Rep. Roger Goodman, a Democrat who chairs the House Community Safety, Justice, and Reentry Committee, voted for the measure, but is concerned that lowering the standard may lead to more injuries and fatalities from traffic accidents.

“I’m holding my breath and fervently hoping that police will use their discretion responsibly and will call the pursuit off if it truly is more dangerous than the risk of not apprehending the person,” Goodman said in an interview.

Some opponents of the revised policy argue that more chases could also lead to increased property damage and prove very costly for local governments responsible for settling claims and covering legal expenses.

And some advocates say that there is not enough data to truly understand how effective the state’s initial pursuit policy was.

“It’s really premature for this initiative to have been proposed and adopted,” said Andrew Villeneuve, the executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “This is really more about the politics for them than the policy.”

The Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs endorsed the measure, saying local pursuit authority is especially important in areas with high rates of car thefts and organized retail thefts, Executive Director Teresa Taylor wrote in an email to Stateline. “The top down, statewide, legislative restrictions were negatively impacting the relationship between law enforcement and the public, a relationship our members care deeply about.”

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Limited data and standards

Data on police chases, crashes and fatalities is limited and likely undercounted. While the federal government collects data on fatal crashes, that system relies on the accuracy of information coming from individual police departments. And some departments do not collect or release this data publicly.

Milwaukee, one of the few cities with comprehensive, public pursuit data, saw a dramatic increase in the number of chases resulting in accidents and injuries following a series of restriction rollbacks that began in 2015. In 2022, the number of pursuits reached 1,028, a staggering fifteenfold increase compared with 2010, when there were only 68 pursuits, according to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission’s 2022 report. The apprehension rate, which measures the percentage of people caught or detained by police following a pursuit, declined from 91.2% in 2010 to 38% in 2022.

An investigation this year by the San Francisco Chronicle, which compiled data from the federal government, private research organizations and news reports, found that at least 3,336 people across the country were killed in pursuits from 2017 through 2022. Most of the pursuits in the Chronicle’s database began over traffic offenses, nonviolent crimes or no crime at all.

One out of 15 people killed in these cases were drivers pursued for suspected violent crimes.

More than half of the fatalities were either non-driving passengers in fleeing vehicles or bystanders. Officers accounted for less than 1% of those killed. The Chronicle’s analysis also found that Black people were killed at a rate four times higher than white people.

“Rollbacks [of strict pursuit policies] ignore a slew of data indicating how immensely dangerous vehicle pursuits are, both to officers and members of the public,” Josh Parker, senior counsel with the New York University Policing Project, said in an interview with Stateline.

There are no national standards or guidelines for when police chases are allowed, according to Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a national nonprofit think tank on policing standards.

But in September 2023, it released a report urging law enforcement agencies to refrain from initiating pursuits unless a violent crime has occurred and the suspect poses an imminent threat to others.

The report, which was written by a committee of experts and policing executives and funded by the federal Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says chases should be rare because the dangers of pursuits to suspects, officers and bystanders often outweigh the urgency of apprehending a suspect.

The report also offers guidance for police departments in crafting pursuit policies that outline when to initiate chases and when to call them off.

Fatal crashes involving police pursuits peaked at 483 in 2022, marking the highest figure since at least 2020 when there were 464 fatal crashes, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency’s data is the sole national source of pursuit-related data, albeit likely incomplete.

“If you don’t have a strong policy, then you’re putting your officers at a higher risk — the public and the people, the suspects,” Wexler said in an interview. “Policy matters, training matters and supervision matters. Four hundred people dying a year is way too many. We can do better than that.”

Motor vehicle thefts increased by 29% in 2023 compared with the previous year, while carjackings slightly decreased by 5% in nearly 40 American cities, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s most recent crime trends report. But between 2019 and 2023, car thefts and carjackings increased dramatically, by 105% and 93%, respectively, according to the report.

The five cities with the highest year-over-year increases in motor vehicle theft between 2022 and 2023 were Rochester, New York; Baltimore; Buffalo, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Cincinnati. The cities with the highest carjacking rates per 100,000 residents in 2023 were the District of Columbia; Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; Chicago; and Denver.

Many have blamed the surge in auto theft on a social media trend among teenagers that exposes vulnerabilities in certain kinds of cars, especially Kia and Hyundai models. But the varying reliability of motor vehicle theft data at different law enforcement levels and the scarcity of national carjacking data make it hard to determine what — or who — is responsible for the spikes.

As with many other crimes, there is limited FBI data on carjackings and motor vehicle thefts because law enforcement agencies differ in how they collect and submit their data. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics also has not released any updated statistics on carjackings since October 2022, which tracked crimes committed through 2021. That poses a significant challenge for policymakers trying to allocate police resources to the communities that need them most.

“We certainly don’t want people flying blind making decisions with respect to public safety,” said Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Miami and the former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Anecdotal evidence on social media can heavily shape public perceptions of safety and crime, Ernesto Lopez, a research specialist at the Council on Criminal Justice, wrote in an email to Stateline.

Josh Rovner, the director of youth justice at The Sentencing Project, agreed that “the scraps of information that we have about youth involvement is very easy to overstate and misunderstand.”

Carjacking data, especially at the national level, is hard to come by. And despite the greater availability of motor vehicle theft data, its reliability varies across different law enforcement levels, with some local departments failing to submit their data to federal agencies and others not collecting the information at all.

“We need more local law enforcement agencies to produce that data — not just internally for their own community to report out to the community, but also for policy action,” Piquero said.

Since reaching its peak in the 1990s, overall crime in the United States has declined. In 2022, the most recent year with available data, there were 23.5 violent crimes for every 1,000 Americans aged 12 and older, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey.

The violent victimization rate increased by 42% in 2022 compared with 2021, but the past three decades have seen an overall decline.

Carjackings and motor vehicle thefts, however, are up compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It’s hard to say exactly what’s behind the surge, but some crime experts suggest that the economic turmoil during the pandemic, coupled with the relative ease of stealing cars or parts for financial gain, increased the attractiveness of car-related crime.

Carjackings are less common than auto thefts but more violent. In a carjacking the perpetrator directly confronts the vehicle’s owner, while auto theft typically occurs when a car is unoccupied. Motor vehicle theft includes stealing entire cars or specific parts such as tires, rims or catalytic converters. The difference between the two offenses is whether force is used to steal a car.

In the District of Columbia, the city’s police department recorded 958 carjackings last year but only made 173 arrests, according to the Metropolitan Police Department’s carjacking dashboard. Sixty-two percent of those suspects were under the age of 18.

Juveniles might be overrepresented in D.C.’s arrest numbers because they are easier to apprehend, or because they tend to commit crimes together, said Rovner, of The Sentencing Project.

Nationwide, the number of adults and juveniles arrested for motor vehicle theft has consistently declined since the 1980s, according to data from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the juvenile arrest rate was about four times higher than adults, an analysis of federal data by the Council on Criminal Justice found. By 2020, the rates for adults and juveniles were about the same.

Misconceptions such as an overemphasis on the role juveniles play in carjackings and auto thefts can lead to misguided policies that may not enhance public safety and, in some cases, may exacerbate the situation, according to Josh Weber, deputy director in the corrections and reentry division of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a think tank focused on breaking the cycle of incarceration.

“(These misconceptions) tend to lead to more reactionary and punitive policies rather than policies that are necessarily grounded in research and data,” said Weber, who also directs the center’s juvenile justice program.

“Research has consistently shown that detaining more kids, incarcerating more kids, pushing more kids into the juvenile justice system is a bad public safety strategy,” Weber added. “It actually increases the likelihood that kids will re-offend.”

The “super predator” mindset of the 1990s, fueled by fears of a generation of remorseless and violent young offenders, significantly shaped criminal justice policies for decades. This crime theory led to harsher penalties, higher juvenile incarceration rates and a focus on punitive measures rather than rehabilitation.

“We are always at risk when people are afraid of crime and instinctually just up penalties. We’ve been here before,” Rovner said. “One of the responses that comes up is the idea that a serious response is about sending kids to adult courts or adult jails or adult prisons, and that is absolutely the worst response when it comes to public safety.”

Instead, some experts say shifting toward evidence-based approaches that not only address crime but also provide support for youth, such as investing in behavioral health services and community-based initiatives aimed at reducing and preventing violence, would be more effective.

“Despite the rhetoric, despite the media stories — it’s really focusing on data- and research-driven policies and not just things that sound good,” said Weber, of the Council of State Governments Justice Center.

“This shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Weber said. “Having data-driven and research-based practices is something that should appeal to both sides of the aisle.”

Crime experts say vehicle owners also can take simple yet crucial precautions, such as avoiding leaving cars unlocked or running unattended, to significantly reduce the risk of theft. And policymakers at all levels of government are increasingly urging car manufacturers to be held accountable for the design of vehicles that might be vulnerable to break-ins.

“It’s important to recognize that the data can certainly guide us,” Rovner said. “Regardless of whether arrests go up or arrests go down, what we should be interested in is what’s best for kids and what’s best for public safety.”

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©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

But those statistics hardly tell the full story.

Recidivism rates across the country can vary greatly because of how they’re defined, how the data is collected and how it’s presented to the public. So it can be difficult to say that, for example, one state is doing better than another in rehabilitating formerly incarcerated residents.

“You have to be very, very careful. You have to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges,” Charis Kubrin, a criminology, law and society professor at the University of California, Irvine, said in an interview with Stateline. Kubrin also is a member of the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan research think tank.

The statistics are used to evaluate a corrections system’s performance. They can help assess how effective rehabilitative or reentry programs and post-sentence probation programs are in lowering the number of reoffenders with certain criminal histories, such as substance use.

Recidivism data tracks the number of convicted offenders who engage in new criminal activities after being released from prison or jail within a specific time frame, typically ranging from one to five years.

A reduced recidivism rate may indicate that efforts by prison staff and probation or parole officers to rehabilitate individuals are effective, said Evan Green-Lowe, the director of state engagement at Recidiviz, a tech nonprofit that partners with state criminal justice agencies.

“It is one of the metrics that state correctional leadership and state community supervision leadership pay close attention to,” Green-Lowe wrote in an email to Stateline.

Among the states that reported lower recidivism rates this year, Iowa, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia all have pointed to reentry or other rehabilitative programs as part of the reason.

“These programs make a huge difference,” said Scott Richeson, the Virginia Department of Corrections’ deputy director of programs, education and reentry, in an interview with Stateline. Richeson said the recividism rate for incarcerated people who participate in career and technical education programs is 12%.

Some criminologists argue that attributing lower recidivism rates to a specific program fails to consider other influencing factors, such as population shifts and — recently — the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the next couple of years, state-reported recidivism rates likely will continue to decline for individuals who were released in 2019 and 2020, as prisons and jails released more people during the peak years of the pandemic, said Shawn Bushway, an economist and criminologist with the nonprofit and nonpartisan research group RAND Corporation.

Most states measure recidivism by tracking former inmates who were held in state prisons or facilities and return to the state prison system within three years. Experts say the absence of a national standard makes it challenging to compare jurisdictions and programs.

State officials should specify how the rate was calculated, what type of offenses or acts count as recidivism, potential limitations, such as incomplete data, and the frequency of reoffenses, according to Elsa Chen, a professor and the chair of the political science department at Santa Clara University.

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Public understanding of recidivism

Politicians and officials sometimes use flawed crime data to burnish their crime-fighting bona fides, and they can tout lower recidivism rates as evidence of their success in rehabilitating criminals.

In May, for example, just five months before Kentucky’s gubernatorial election, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear announced at a news conference that the state had achieved its lowest recidivism rate in history at 27.15% for individuals held in state custody. Kentucky defines recidivism as a return to state custody within two years of release, either due to committing a new felony or a technical violation of supervision.

“When we get somebody who is leaving prison in a stable position — in a good job, with the services they need, maybe in treatment if they need it — they are less likely to reoffend, which makes our communities safer,” Beshear said during the news conference. “It means fewer crimes are happening.”

The Kentucky Department of Corrections didn’t answer emailed questions and didn’t make anyone available for an interview.

But some experts argue that Beshear’s characterization — implying a connection between recidivism and public safety — is inaccurate because recidivism solely gauges whether an individual reoffends.

“It can have harmful effects on public understanding because the public believes they’re being told something by a responsible person that directly assesses public safety, and [recidivism] does not measure public safety,” Jeffrey Butts, a research professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told Stateline.

Some state officials say recidivism rates show how effective their programming is, while acknowledging the state-by-state differences.

“I don’t think it’s misleading at all because I see all the work and the data that we have available is very reliable,” said Richeson, with the Virginia Department of Corrections. “It’s hard to compare across states because there are differences in every system.”

Virginia measures recidivism by tracking former state inmates who return to the state prison system within three years post-release.

“We feel that’s the best indicator of services that we are providing,” she said.

Richeson said her state’s emphasis on safety within the prisons helps incarcerated residents feel more comfortable being involved in rehabilitation.

“We could not do any of these programs were it not for having safe and secure prisons, so it really is how the whole system works together. It’s not just one program,” she said. “We want to create long-term public safety when people get out.”

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What the data says

In recidivism studies, the act of reoffending may be defined differently. It can, for example, include violating parole, being arrested, being convicted of a crime or returning to prison. Some studies consider all these outcomes as recidivism, while others count only one or two.

Some states only consider felonies as recidivism, excluding less serious misdemeanors that may result in local jail time rather than a state prison sentence. And states vary in categorizing crimes as felonies or misdemeanors, adding even more complexity.

“Those are policy differences that end up structuring or creating the metric of recidivism,” Butts said. “Unless you investigate all those things and can control for them, you’re still not informing the public in a responsible way.”

States also are inconsistent in the time periods covered by recidivism studies. Most include new offenses within three to five years; others examine a much shorter time frame, such as six months to a year.

Recidivism rates might appear higher in highly policed areas, where residents are more likely to come into contact with police. And in some states, recidivism includes missteps such as missing a meeting with a parole officer, technically not a criminal offense but still counted as one.

“When somebody has recidivated, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve committed any new crimes,” Chen said. “That’s something that is not obvious to most people in the public.”

Official data also can miss counting former prisoners who break the law but go undetected. This is why some criminologists argue that recidivism studies should include self-reports of criminal behavior and differentiate among various types of recidivism, such as violent crimes, property crimes and technical violations.

“In an ideal system, you would have measures of recidivism that span all of these different things,” Kubrin, the law and society professor, said.

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State recidivism rates

States this year have pointed to rehabilitation and reentry programs as major contributors to their drops in recidivism.

In Iowa, the recidivism rate for fiscal year 2023 stands at 34.3%, down 2.7 percentage points from last year. The state defines recidivism as an individual being released from an Iowa prison and being re-incarcerated within three years for any reason.

A news release announcing Iowa’s third consecutive drop in recidivism attributed the decrease to various programs, improved reentry practices and increased access to educational and job skills training.

The Iowa Department of Corrections also examines outcomes such as employment and wages, housing stability, program completion and probation, parole and work-release revocations, according to Sarah Fineran, the agency’s research director.

Tennessee saw its recidivism rate drop to 29.6% this year for people released in 2019, the lowest rate in more than a decade. The Tennessee Department of Correction defines recidivism as re-arrest, re-conviction or return to prison within three years after release.

The Virginia Department of Corrections in January announced its recidivism rate dropped to 20.6%, which includes people released from the state prison system in 2018 who were re-incarcerated within three years.

This is the seventh consecutive year that Virginia has had the second-lowest or the lowest rate of recidivism in the nation, according to the department’s news release and analysis.

South Carolina, too, boasts one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country at 17%. The South Carolina Department of Corrections defines recidivism as someone who is re-incarcerated within three years of release.

“It’s never just one thing, but a combination of interventions. [The South Carolina Department of Corrections] takes a holistic approach based on the needs of the individual offender,” Chrysti Shain, the department’s director of communications, wrote in an email to Stateline. “We want to release inmates who have a real second chance.”

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Measuring success

Some advocates say that using alternative factors such as employment or housing provides much better indicators of success after being released from prison.

“Recidivism by itself is not a true measure of the success of reentry programming or of incarceration rates,” said Ann Fisher, the executive director of Virginia CARES, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting formerly incarcerated people in Virginia. “It’s just not a true picture.”

A 2022 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggests pairing recidivism rates with indicators that capture progress away from crime, such as reductions in the seriousness of criminal activity or an increased duration between release and a criminal act, known as “desistance.”

The report also recommends developing new measures of post-release success that consider factors such as personal well-being, education, employment, housing, family and social supports, health, civic and community engagement and legal involvement.

“Measures of desistance from crime are much more accurate and realistic in looking at changes in criminal activity after release from prison,” said Chen, of Santa Clara University, who is one of the report’s authors. “Those are much more nuanced than just whether or not they’ve had another interaction with the criminal legal system.”

Amid the chaos, a technological ally has emerged: artificial intelligence. In the United States, AI is quietly transforming how non-emergency calls are handled in dispatch centers. An AI-powered system can triage and coordinate the flood of reports, promptly alerting the relevant agencies.

For now, AI-powered systems only manage non-emergency calls, which typically come from a non-911 phone number but are answered in the same centers, allowing human dispatchers to focus on emergencies.

The integration of AI technology into 911 centers is partly a response to an acute staffing crisis and the pressing need to address the mental health challenges that emergency responders face. While AI-powered systems in 911 centers offer potential benefits, such as managing call surges and reducing dispatcher workloads, concerns linger among experts about the possibility that these systems may overprescribe police response or make mistakes due to biases.

So far, fewer than a dozen localities in seven states across the country are using or testing artificial intelligence in their 911 centers. But, as in other industries, leaders are wondering how AI can transform workplaces.

“For me, I think that the use of AI for non-emergency calls is a fantastic idea,” said Ty Wooten, the director of government affairs for the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, an organization that helps set standards for emergency dispatch centers. “I see the huge benefit of being able to alleviate those calls out of the 911 center queue so that the 911 call takers can really focus … on the ones that really matter.”

Emergency call centers are struggling to find workers. Between 2019 and 2022, 1 in 4 jobs at 911 centers were vacant, according to a report published in June of this year from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch and the National Association of State 911 Administrators. As emergency call centers continue to grapple with understaffing issues, some 911 calls may go unanswered or get stuck in lengthy queues.

“That subsequent loss of staff makes everyone have to work more, which then burns people out and creates more turnover,” Wooten said in an interview. “It’s this vicious cycle.”

For now, there’s little regulation on how artificial intelligence can help. Only a few states have set AI regulatory frameworks. And the definition of AI itself remains uncertain in many states.

Public safety agencies often approach new technologies, including artificial intelligence, with caution because of concerns about service disruptions, said Brandon Abley, the director of technology for the National Emergency Number Association, a nonprofit professional group.

“[Emergency call centers] are not really stumbling over themselves to try and implement AI in their operations because generally, they don’t want huge disruptions to their operations unless they’re very, very certain,” Abley said in an interview with Stateline.

And there could be disadvantages, he added. For example, dispatchers could face heightened mental health challenges if they have to manage more emergency calls because an AI system is taking the bulk of administrative or non-emergency calls.

“We think it looks promising,” Abley said, “but we’re also cautious.”

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Boosting efficiency and reducing workload

The testing or implementation of AI systems for call-taking in 911 centers already has begun in municipalities in Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Among the driving forces is the dual role that call center personnel play. In most public safety centers, the same people answer both emergency and non-emergency calls. With a shrinking workforce, some governments see AI as a solution to alleviate part of the workload.

Among the tech companies offering products to 911 centers is Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon that provides cloud computing services, including Amazon Connect, a cloud-based contact center designed to provide verbal assistance. Carbyne is another software company focused on emergency communications services that uses AI for live two-way translation and triaging calls.

In South Carolina, for example, Amazon Connect is used for non-emergency calls in Charleston County’s Consolidated Emergency Communication Center. When a caller dials the county’s non-emergency line, Amazon Connect will answer and ask the caller what they need help with. The system will redirect the caller to appropriate resources, allowing human dispatchers to focus on emergency call-taking. If the system cannot understand the caller, it will send the call to a human dispatcher.

The center spends about $2,800 per month on its Amazon Connect subscription, which Jim Lake, the center’s director, said is cheaper than hiring staff solely for answering non-emergency calls. The system has reduced the volume of calls to the administrative line by 36% since March, Lake told Stateline.

“Those are calls that our 911 public safety telecommunicators don’t want to take. They are not emergencies. So we’re showing them that we’re making their jobs more efficient and giving them the opportunity to do more on those emergency calls,” Lake said.

Several other call centers — including the Arlington County Emergency Communications Center in Virginia, the St. Louis County Police Department in Missouri and the Jefferson County Communications Center Authority in Colorado — also are adopting the Amazon Connect system or similar technologies.

Since Jefferson County began using Amazon Connect’s program last December, AI has processed about 40% of the emergency center’s administrative calls.

“We’re processing just under a million calls a year, so for us to handle it through technology — freeing up personnel to handle more acuity-style calls — works much better for us,” said Jeff Streeter, the center’s executive director.

While there are concerns about AI displacing dispatchers’ jobs, many leaders of 911 call centers emphasize that their goal is to make existing roles more manageable.

“I cannot stress enough that it does not take away jobs, especially in the 911 industry. It’s there to help them enhance their job,” said Jacob Saur, the emergency communications center administrator for Arlington County Public Safety Communications and Emergency Management. “I just cannot see in any way, shape or form an automated bot answering a 911 call.”

Brian Battles, the communications administrative specialist for the St. Louis County Police Department’s Bureau of Communications, which oversees the county’s 911 operations, echoed this perspective.

“It has been very beneficial to the call takers, who are already overworked,” Battles said. “Anything we can do to relieve that stress while actually providing a more efficient service to the citizens is a no-brainer on our part.”

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Addressing bias and funding

Like other new criminal justice technology, concerns about bias loom large with AI systems.

“All AI models are only as good as their developers,” Daniela Gilbert, the director of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Redefining Public Safety initiative, wrote in an email. The potential is there, she wrote, for AI to replicate human biases on a large scale.

“If these systems are [designed] to take calls, rather than assisting call takers, it would remove a human empathy that is so often essential in crisis situations,” Gilbert wrote. “Imagine being in a time of stress and great need and having to negotiate with a bot.”

If, for example, developers have a particular bias that favors police response, AI systems may overprescribe police involvement when alternative resources might be more suitable, Gilbert wrote.

Martha Buyer, a telecommunications law attorney and 911 expert, emphasized that AI systems are prone to errors, which could lead to liability issues. The systems must be capable of accommodating a diverse range of callers, including those who speak languages other than English or have specific needs related to their abilities, Buyer added.

“To have an AI system answer a 911 call — that’s so fraught with liability I don’t even want to think about it,” she said. “Timing is critical.”

Artificial intelligence systems aren’t available everywhere in part because many dispatch call centers find themselves stuck in a technological time warp, relying on old systems that struggle to keep pace with rapid tech advancements.

“The reality is the system of 911 as it is today across the country is still kind of operated off technology that was developed in the 1930s,” said Wooten, of the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. “That technology has to be upgraded, and we have to get that to a point where we understand and it is more equitable.”

Even as cellphones have become ubiquitous, for example, some outdated systems grapple to accurately pinpoint a mobile phone caller’s location. Instead of obtaining precise GPS coordinates, these centers might only get the location of the nearby cell tower, hampering response efforts.

“Nobody ever plans on needing to call 911, so from a government perspective, it’s often pushed to the side in terms of funding,” Buyer said.

Wooten said that despite AI’s potential, many centers need basic tech improvements before getting involved with artificial intelligence.

“We really have to get the infrastructure in place and taken care of first before we will ever be able to see the benefits and understanding of what other future technologies, whether that be AI or any other future technology.”

He had been forced to repeatedly chug 190-proof Diesel liquor in a hazing ritual called “Bible Study,” during which pledges are quizzed on fraternity facts. The incident caused Gruver, a freshman majoring in political communications, to inhale his own vomit into his lungs.

By the time fraternity members finally sought medical aid the next morning, Gruver’s pulse was weak and they couldn’t tell if he was breathing. Gruver’s blood alcohol level was .495, more than six times Louisiana’s legal driving limit, when he died from what an autopsy concluded was “acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration.” He was 18.

As college students begin a new semester this fall, many will participate in rituals to bring in new members of a Greek fraternity or sorority, a sports team or other club. Sometimes, the initiations involve heavy alcohol use or physical assaults. Although awareness of hazing and its dangers has grown significantly, it still happens.

In June, New Mexico State University agreed to pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit over hazing allegations in the men’s basketball program. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she will be introducing anti-hazing and abuse legislation next year. In July, Northwestern University fired its head football coach after an investigation found widespread hazing on the team. And Boston College suspended its swim and dive team this month following hazing allegations.

At least 44 states and the District of Columbia have anti-hazing laws in place, most recently Ohio in 2021 and Pennsylvania in 2018. Kentucky and Washington strengthened their laws this past legislative session. Six states — Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming — have none, according to StopHazing, an anti-hazing advocacy and research organization.

But state anti-hazing laws, most of which were approved in the past 15 years, differ in their definitions and the criminal penalties they impose. Depending on the state, participating in hazing activities may result in a fine, misdemeanor charge or a felony charge if the hazing results in serious bodily harm or death.

Some experts and anti-hazing advocates say the penalties in some states aren’t harsh enough to deter organizations from participating in hazing. And even in states that have laws, incidents like the one that left Max Gruver dead don’t necessarily lead to serious criminal charges.

Four former LSU students and ex-members of Phi Delta Theta were indicted in connection with Gruver’s death. Three of them faced misdemeanor hazing charges, while the fourth faced a felony charge of negligent homicide. The university also banned Phi Delta Theta from its campus until at least 2033.

Gruver’s parents — Rae Ann and Stephen Gruver — pressed for stiffer penalties for hazing, prompting Louisiana to enact the Max Gruver Act in 2018, which made hazing that results in serious bodily harm or death a felony; introduced a statewide definition of hazing; and mandated that hazing incidents and disciplinary actions taken against members of student groups be reported to the respective host institutions.

“It’s unfortunate that with the death of our son — it took that to get Louisiana to change their laws,” Stephen Gruver told Stateline. “It’s something that can be prevented; this never should have happened to our son.”

Since then, the Gruvers, along with parents of other hazing victims, have advocated for stricter state and federal penalties for hazing and greater transparency when such incidents occur.

“If you don’t have a strong enough law, it’s not a deterrent for these kids and they’re just going to keep on being bad actors because they just don’t care,” Stephen Gruver said.

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Hazing’s wide reach

Hazing, a practice rooted in tradition and camaraderie, has long been a controversial and pervasive issue on college campuses. While hazing incidents have garnered significant national attention over the past decade, the earliest account of hazing is believed to date back to the fourth century — when Plato observed young boys playing “practical jokes” on other students in school, according to a book written by journalist and anti-hazing advocate Hank Nuwer. The first anti-hazing law in the United States was enacted in New York in 1894.

In the U.S., more than 280 people allegedly have died due to hazing since 1838, according to the U.S. Hazing Deaths Database. The database is maintained by Nuwer. Hazing deaths are not currently tracked by any U.S. government entity.

In 2017, the year of Gruver’s death, at least six other young adults also died a result of alleged hazing activities. Between 2018 and 2021, at least 23 people allegedly died due to hazing activities. No hazing deaths were reported in 2022.

According to a 2008 study by two University of Maine professors, more than half of college students involved with student organizations experience hazing, which often involves “alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep-deprivation, and sex acts.” The study, which is considered the most comprehensive analysis of hazing in the United States, also found that about 47% of students come to college having already experienced hazing.

“Hazing is prevalent throughout society. It’s not just a college thing. It’s really seen anywhere that there’s a differing power dynamic,” Todd Shelton, the executive director of the Hazing Prevention Network, told Stateline. Hazing appears in settings such as high schools, other student groups, the military and professional workplaces.

In many states, hazing carries misdemeanor charges — a fact that some advocates argue does little to effectively deter hazing incidents.

“Where hazing is a minor misdemeanor, it’s not taken seriously by law enforcement because it’s not worth the effort to prosecute,” Shelton said. “One of the biggest hurdles is getting the penalty or statute to match the seriousness of the crime.”

In Kentucky, Lofton’s Law was signed into law in March, increasing the penalty for hazing that leads to death or serious physical injury to a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Reckless participation in hazing can result in a misdemeanor.

And in Washington state, the Sam Martinez Stop Hazing Law, which was passed unanimously and signed into law in May, makes hazing a gross misdemeanor instead of a misdemeanor; if the hazing results in substantial bodily harm, it rises to a felony. The law bumps up penalties for hazing from a maximum of 90 days to up to a year — and up to five years for the felony charge.

Washington became the 15th state to elevate hazing to a felony if it causes severe injury or death.

“For the first time we’re talking about hazing in a very real way. There’s been a culture of secrecy, in my view, of hazing for many, many years,” Rep. Mari Leavitt, a Democrat who wrote the bill, said in an interview with Stateline. “Students will recognize that there is a pretty significant consequence for choosing to behave in these barbaric activities and it can change the trajectory of their lives.”

The new law follows the passage of Sam’s Law in 2022, named after the same student, which updated the definition of hazing and required universities and colleges, as well as fraternity and sorority chapters, to make hazing investigation records public.

“The more that people are aware, and willing to talk about it and willing to report what they see, that will start to change that culture of secrecy to something that holds people accountable and also is transparent in terms of what’s happening across states,” Leavitt said.

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Anti-hazing movement

In 15 states, a major weakness in the anti-hazing law, according to StopHazing, is the absence of a “consent clause,” which asserts that an individual’s willingness to participate in potentially hazardous actions — as when a student agrees to a certain activity — does not protect those involved from hazing charges. Some anti-hazing laws explicitly spell out that consent is not a defense.

“The consent clause … is really important in terms of documenting hazing and having policy be really effective,” said Elizabeth Allan, the principal of StopHazing and a professor of higher education at the University of Maine. Allan co-wrote the 2008 national study on hazing.

Advocacy groups also have been pushing for national anti-hazing legislation to establish uniform definitions and penalties.

Proposed federal legislation, originally known as the Report and Educate About Campus Hazing Act, or REACH Act, was initially introduced in Congress in 2021. This year, it is set to be reintroduced under a new name, the Stop Campus Hazing Act. The legislation encompasses a range of transparency and prevention measures, including mandatory public reporting of hazing incidents and the implementation of comprehensive prevention programs.

“Hazing is often underreported, underrecognized and it’s really not being taken as seriously as it should be given the harmful impact that it has on individuals and communities,” said Jessica Mertz, the executive director of the Clery Center, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting campus safety.

Among Greek fraternities and sororities, discussions around cracking down on hazing have gained momentum. Still, critics argue that most state anti-hazing laws should impose tougher penalties on national Greek life organizations and institutions, rather than individuals.

“As a founding member of the Anti-Hazing Coalition, the North American Interfraternity Conference and our member fraternities advocate for stronger federal and state hazing laws to increase criminal penalties and provide greater transparency to hold individuals accountable when found to be involved in hazing,” Judson Horras, CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, said in a statement.

“While in this partnership, we have seen stronger state laws passed in over a dozen states and are encouraged by the introduction of the bipartisan Stop Campus Hazing Act in the 118th Congress last week,” the statement said.

A 2020 paper by a Penn State University professor and published in the Journal of College and University Law underscores this argument. Law professor Justin J. Swofford argues that for legislation to be most effective in deterring future hazing injuries and deaths, there must be greater criminal and civil penalties imposed on both schools and fraternities.

However, some voices within the Greek life community question whether genuine change is achievable. Lucy Taylor, who disaffiliated from Alpha Phi at the University of Maryland and hosts “SNAPPED,” a podcast exploring Greek life, suggests that change within Greek organizations can often appear performative.

These initiatives may encompass disciplinary committees, mandatory anti-hazing programs or even the hiring of security teams, Taylor said.

“They make it seem like change is happening, but those things that they’re doing to create change don’t actually have any power. If they wanted hazing to be gone, it would have been gone years ago,” Taylor said. “They don’t do anything or they don’t do what they’re intended to do, and the hazing culture just becomes even more secret.

“The more secret it becomes, the worse it gets.”

Fueled by public outrage over the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and other high-profile incidents of police violence, state policymakers have offered a variety of police oversight and transparency bills.

Between May 2020 and April 2023, lawmakers in nearly every state and the District of Columbia introduced almost 500 bills addressing police investigations and discipline, including providing access to disciplinary records, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Sixty-five of the bills have been enacted.

Delaware in June became the most recent to pass transparency legislation, expected to be signed into law this month. California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York also are among the states that have opened police disciplinary records to the public in recent years.

But police records in most states remain largely confidential or have some release restrictions. And even in states with open records laws, advocates seeking records have faced barriers, leading to lawsuits.

Advocates for transparency argue that the release of disciplinary records empowers residents, journalists and civil rights activists to identify patterns of misconduct and hold officers accountable.

“Police misconduct records should be available to the public in most situations, if not all situations, because these are folks who have a lot of power and authority,” said Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, which advocates for more transparency. “They have the power to lawfully take a person’s life. The stakes are just so high when there’s a police officer who’s got a lengthy record of misconduct.”

But some police unions and law enforcement organizations have raised concerns about officer safety and privacy, with names and other identifying information made public. They emphasize that the focus should be on serious misconduct rather than minor infractions like being tardy, worry about false accusations and want officers to have due process.

“What’s included should be substantiated. It should be included only after the officer was provided due process, and it should be significant misconduct,” said Bill Johnson, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, in an interview with Stateline. He said that includes an officer having the opportunity to respond to allegations and having a “neutral fact finder” investigate.

“If it’s going to be something that’s useful, where you are safeguarding the public against persons who should not be in law enforcement, you have to be careful about, ‘What are we really talking about here? What gets included and how do we know that we can rely on this?’”

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Ongoing debate

Even states that have recently enacted laws face ongoing debate.

In Maryland, where records have been available through public records requests since October 2021, public interest groups and news organizations have filed lawsuits citing exorbitant fees, missed deadlines and outright denials of records requests by law enforcement agencies.

And in New Jersey, the state Supreme Court issued a ruling in June that requires individuals who sue for public records to pay the entire cost of their own attorneys, regardless of the case’s outcome. Public interest and transparency advocates fear the decision will create additional hurdles for people seeking access to police records, including disciplinary reports and dashboard camera videos.

Delaware is the latest state to pass legislation that will require substantiated reports of misconduct, such as use of force that results in serious physical injury and sexual assault or harassment, to be reported to the state’s Criminal Justice Council and posted publicly on the council’s website. Democratic Gov. John Carney is expected to sign the legislation into law on Aug. 7, according to state Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown, a Democrat who sponsored the bill.

“After we witnessed the situation that happened with George Floyd and we saw the public outcry, we knew that something had to be done,” Minor-Brown said in an interview with Stateline. “We owe it to the community. I owe it to my son, to my daughter, to my husband, to my colleagues, to those who do not have a seat at the table, to those whose voices aren’t heard, to those who have experienced injustice.”

It took lawmakers about three years to push through the legislation. While transparency advocates supported previous versions of the bill, they opposed the current version, arguing that it falls short of achieving full transparency and external oversight. The ACLU of Delaware noted, for example, that police departments will decide whether to investigate complaints and that only specific categories of misconduct are covered.

“It does not necessarily meet the standards that we think is enough to increase trust between communities and the police,” said Javonne Rich, the group’s policy and advocacy director, in an interview with Stateline. “All the information that will be made public will be what the police department wants to be made public.”

But Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, a Democrat, endorsed the new bill, as did representatives from several police agencies. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in June, a witness read a supportive statement from Jamie Leonard, who leads the Delaware Fraternal Order of Police union, WHYY reported.

“We wanted to lift the veil of secrecy that so many believe surrounds our profession,’ Leonard’s statement said, according to WHYY, the Philadelphia public radio station. “We want to provide access to information that includes names on cases where we believe our officers fell short of the standard expected by our agencies, by other officers, and by our community.”

Minor-Brown, the Delaware state representative, said that although the bill may not entirely meet advocates’ expectations, it represents a “huge step in the right direction.”

“I hear what the advocates are saying and there’s definitely going to be some space for tweaking,” Minor-Brown said. “We could have not moved forward based off of some of the advocates feeling like it wasn’t enough, and then we could have gotten nowhere. I was not willing to not move anywhere because we weren’t at 100%.”

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California concerns

In 2018, California made records on officer use-of-force incidents, sexual assault cases and acts of dishonesty available through public records requests. Another law enacted in 2021 established a decertification process for law enforcement officers involved in serious misconduct.

But this year, a provision enacted in the state’s budget shifts back to local police departments the responsibility of releasing their records, instead of having the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training do so.

The measure, backed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom as a cost-saving measure in the face of a large budget deficit, drew strong criticism from criminal justice and press freedom groups, The Associated Press reported.

The state commission backed the bill. The measure “continues to ensure public access to police misconduct records in a way that improves efficiencies, reduces duplicative efforts, and saves substantial taxpayer money,” wrote Meagan Poulos, the commission’s legislative liaison and public information officer, in an emailed statement.

But transparency advocates argue that the public should have a central clearinghouse for the records and that some local police departments may resist releasing such information.

“There has been significant resistance to disclosure. Others have been more proactive,” said David Loy, the legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonpartisan group that aims to protect free speech rights, in an interview with Stateline. “It impacts the entire community. … Information is power, and without transparency, there’s no accountability at any level.”

Some police unions and law enforcement organizations have raised concerns about officer safety and privacy in California and nationwide. They fear that releasing unrestricted personnel records, which may include names and other identifying information, could expose individual officers to undue scrutiny and even endanger their safety and professional reputation.

“We understand that’s not the intent of why these things are getting released, but it is an unintended consequence of releasing names. … They could be doxxed, they could be harassed, there could be protests in front of their house. And because of the nature of the work we do, it’s very concerning,” said Lolita Harper, the executive director of the Sheriff’s Employees’ Benefit Association and a former detective for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, in an interview with Stateline.

Many law enforcement groups recognize the importance of accountability and transparency in fostering community trust and say that making disciplinary records accessible plays a significant role in achieving that goal.

“The utmost thing is to have that trust with the public, so with the specifics that at least the California legislation requires … we can understand that compromise with where the legislation was coming from and if that helps the public to have more trust than we understand it,” Harper said.