law enforcement

As schools across the country struggle to meet the new national common core standards, one controversial aspect of education is not part of the curriculum: sex education. On today’s show: the evolving debate around sex ed, and why it’s not strictly an American phenomenon. Plus, from false confessions to inadequate defenses, wrongful convictions can happen for many reasons. We’ll look at faulty eyewitness testimonies, the number one contributing cause of wrongful convictions.

Decades of a tough-on-crime approach brought mandatory minimum sentences that many now say are too costly – both in social terms and dollars, as prison populations have soared. State lawmakers recently considered removing these for certain nonviolent offenders. But some are urging caution on behalf of public safety.

“Officer-involved shootings”: that’s when police fire their guns during confrontations with suspects.  After two such shootings recently killed two people, questions have been raised about police use of deadly force.  But many in law enforcement say it’s become a more dangerous job, and that they go to great lengths to avoid harm.  We’ll look at police training and protocols. 

GUESTS:

When shots were fired before midnight on April 18th, curious, concerned people tracked the dramatic killing of one Boston marathon bombing suspect, and the tense manhunt for his younger brother throughout the night. Many watched and listened through online streaming and social media, others followed the intense action on Boston police scanners; some 180,000 people were tuned in to the scanner feeds during peak traffic. And then, it stopped…

Friday marks the one year anniversary of the shooting death of Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney. He was killed in the line of duty, helping fellow officers who themselves had been shot while attempting to execute a search warrant in a drug case. The Chief was popular and well admired in the small seacoast town, and many in the community are still feeling the loss intensely.  The town’s current Police Chief Tara Laurent talks about how her Department is observing the anniversary.

Central Park was New York City’s place of refuge and openness until April 19, 1989 when a woman was brutally assaulted and left for dead. Author Sarah Burns turned her research about the event into a documentary film detailing the racially charged convictions of five black and Latino youth. They were exonerated over a decade later when another man confessed to committing the crime.

Calling public safety “our most important responsibility,” Governor Maggie Hassan outlined her funding proposals in today’s budget address. 

Comparing public safety to the state’s health care system, Hassan said it had taken “too many hits” in the last budget.  She called on legislators to “reverse course” immediately, in the interest of keeping New Hampshire residents safe.

The Department of Justice announced a major drug bust today involving members of a Mexican cartel. 

Undercover agents from the FBI and Boston Police Department tracked the suspects for three years as part of Operation Dark Water. Posing as European drug traffickers, they met with members of the Sinaloa Cartel at undisclosed locations in New Hampshire, Florida and the Virgin Islands.