police Archives

NEW BINJ COLLABORATION WITH INVISIBLE INSTITUTE

The lack of comprehensive employment history data in Massachusetts is driven home by the launch of a data tool for exactly that information from 17 other states this week

CHRIS FARAONE September 18, 2024

Half The Story: A Deep Dive On What’s Come Of Police Reform In Massachusetts

Massachusetts passed historic police certification reform. But even with the POST Commission, the public can’t see which cops have been part of the “officer shuffle.”

CHRIS FARAONE AND SAM STECKLOW September 18, 2024

EFF AMPLIFIES CELL-SITE SIMULATOR INVESTIGATION

BINJ article provided “some of the most comprehensive information about modern CSS that the public has had access to in years.”

CHRIS FARAONE June 13, 2024

FACIAL ANIMOSITY

As Massachusetts lawmakers weigh new facial recognition rules, their own guards shop for AI-enhanced surveillance that privacy advocates call “chilling,” “unlawful,” and “racially biased”

DAN ATKINSON May 20, 2024

FEATURE FOLLOW-UP: SURREPTITIOUS SIMULATION

Massachusetts State Police purchased cell-phone surveillance tech that civil liberties watchdogs say invites concerning violations of constitutional protections. Is it too late for privacy advocates and lawmakers to put accountability measures in place?

DAN ATKINSON April 3, 2024

THE WALTHAM MURDERS: THE INTERVIEW

Speaking with Susan Clare Zalkind about her new book, The Waltham Murders: One Woman’s Pursuit to Expose the Truth Behind a Murder and a National Tragedy

CHRIS FARAONE March 15, 2024

STINGRAYS, SIMULATORS, SURVEILLANCE, AND SILVERADOS

How Massachusetts State Police are using the opioid crisis to pursue “profound and dangerous erosions of privacy and civil liberties”

DAN ATKINSON February 6, 2024

CLOAK & RECORDS: MORE POST COMMISSION OMISSIONS

“If the same police departments issue press releases after arrests—not convictions—if they think that doing that makes the community safer, then why redact information about alleged abuses from police officers themselves?”

DAN ATKINSON September 14, 2023

THE SEVEN YEARS WAR

Boston police used their fusion center to surveil my journalistic actions. It took nearly seven years for BPD to hold itself somewhat accountable, and only after they used my information in a Department of Homeland Security conference presentation. The department violated transparency laws and their own policies to hide their

MAYA SHAFFER July 13, 2023

IMPUNITY SERVICE

The state’s police oversight commission only publicizes cops who have been punished, but there’s a back door to discovering the dirty details of departments that let problematic officers linger “The public deserves to see allegations of police misconduct in real time, because officers have tremendous powers and responsibilities in our

DAN ATKINSON June 28, 2023