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1. 14-Carbon demonstrates that some illegal ivory is being taken from government stockpiles

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211550119  

   Cerling, Thure E.; Brown, John E.; Hoareau, Yves; Kahumbu, Paula; Odhacha, Tobias; Southon, John R.; Wasser, Samuel K. (November 2022, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   The 14-carbon in animal tissues records the time that the tissues are formed; since the 1960s, using the “bomb curve” for 14 C, the age of animal death can be determined accurately. Using animal tissue samples of known collection and formation dates for calibration, we determine the age of ivory samples from four ivory seizures made by law enforcement agencies between 2017 and 2019. The 14 C measurements from these seizures show that most ivory in the illegal wildlife trade is from animals from recent poaching activities. However, one seizure has a large fraction of ivory that is more than 30 y old, consistent with markings on the tusks indicating they were derived from a government stockpile. 

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2. A Look to the Interior: Trends in U.S. Immigration Removals by Criminal Conviction Type, Gender, and Region of Origin, Fiscal Years 2003-2015

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219835276  

   Moinester, Margot (March 2019, American Behavioral Scientist)

   Over the past two decades, the U.S. federal government has sought to increase its capacity to find, apprehend, and deport noncitizens residing in the United States who have violated federal immigration laws. One way the federal government has done this is by partnering with state and local law enforcement agencies on immigration enforcement efforts. The present study analyzes the records of all 1,964,756 interior removals between fiscal years 2003 and 2015 to examine how, if at all, the types of criminal convictions leading to removal from the U.S. interior have changed during this period of heightened coordination between law enforcement agencies and whether there are differences by gender and region of origin in the types of convictions leading to removal. Findings show that as coordination between law enforcement agencies intensified, the proportion of individuals removed from the U.S. interior with either no criminal convictions or with a driving-related conviction as their most serious conviction increased. Findings also show that the proportion of individuals removed with no criminal convictions was greater for women than for men and that the share of individuals removed with a driving-related conviction as their most serious conviction was greater for Latin Americans than for individuals from all other regions. Given renewed investment in these types of law enforcement partnerships under the Trump administration, the patterns presented in this article may foreshadow trends to come. 

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3. Analyzing Human-Robot Trust in Police Work Using a Teleoperated Communicative Robot

   https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN50785.2021.9515489  

   Bordbar, Fareed; Salehzadeh, Roya; Cousin, Christian; Griffin, Darrin J.; Jalili, Nader (August 2021, 2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN))

   Recent advances in robotics have accelerated their widespread use in nontraditional domains such as law enforcement. The inclusion of robotics allows for the introduction of time and space in dangerous situations, and protects law enforcement officers (LEOs) from the many potentially dangerous situations they encounter. In this paper, a teleoperated robot prototype was designed and tested to allow LEOs to remotely and transparently communicate and interact with others. The robot featured near face-to-face interactivity and accuracy across multiple verbal and non-verbal modes using screens, microphones, and speakers. In cooperation with multiple law enforcement agencies, results are presented on this dynamic and integrative teleoperated communicative robot platform in terms of attitudes towards robots, trust in robot operation, and trust in human-robot-human interaction and communication. 

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4. Quantifying the Effect of Socio-Economic Predictors and the Built Environment on Mental Health Events in Little Rock, AR

   https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi12050205  

   Ek, Alfieri; Drawve, Grant; Robinson, Samantha; Datta, Jyotishka (May 2023, ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information)

   Law enforcement agencies continue to grow in the use of spatial analysis to assist in identifying patterns of outcomes. Despite the critical nature of proper resource allocation for mental health incidents, there has been little progress in statistical modeling of the geo-spatial nature of mental health events in Little Rock, Arkansas. In this article, we provide insights into the spatial nature of mental health data from Little Rock, Arkansas between 2015 and 2018, under a supervised spatial modeling framework. We provide evidence of spatial clustering and identify the important features influencing such heterogeneity via a spatially informed hierarchy of generalized linear, tree-based, and spatial regression models, viz. the Poisson regression model, the random forest model, the spatial Durbin error model, and the Manski model. The insights obtained from these different models are presented here along with their relative predictive performances. The inferential tools developed here can be used in a broad variety of spatial modeling contexts and have the potential to aid both law enforcement agencies and the city in properly allocating resources. We were able to identify several built-environment and socio-demographic measures related to mental health calls while noting that the results indicated that there are unmeasured factors that contribute to the number of events. 

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5. Trade-offs in transit public safety interventions: Balancing enforcement and service quality improvements

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2025.104584  

   Aeschliman, Spencer; Stathopoulos, Amanda (September 2025, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice)

   The slow rebound of public transit ridership since the pandemic and major upcoming budget shortfalls have created a perfect storm in which American cities and transit agencies must make difficult decisions regarding operations and service design. Among the many challenges, perceived rider safety has emerged as a key concern. However, implementing effective safety interventions is complicated by the mixed rider experiences with, and perceptions of, crime and law enforcement. Transit agencies can design more effective policy interventions if they understand what shapes riders’ reactions to different safety strategies, and how those strategies can promote rider satisfaction. Using a 2023 survey of 2292 transit riders in the Chicago region, we estimate a Bayesian Structural Equation Model to investigate the connections between rider experiences and demographics, receptiveness to safety measures, and overall satisfaction. We find that enforcement-related strategies are most strongly associated with higher overall rider satisfaction, but they also come with the notable downside of 10%–20% of riders feeling less safe. On the other hand, improvements to various facets of service quality are less strongly related to satisfaction, but they come with little to no downside in terms of negative rider perceptions. Rider experience also plays a role, with more severe crime and nuisance experience directly impacting satisfaction. In contrast, indirect knowledge of transit safety issues obtained from media and hearsay primarily affects riders’ support for safety interventions rather than their overall satisfaction. 

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