POLICE DEPARTMENT

A Wisconsin Police Department adopted a stray dog to the task force after it was found and trained to be a therapy dog.

Sheriff’s department officers in one Illinois county are hitting the streets with tablets that can connect people in distress immediately with mental health professionals

The Justice Department is launching a widespread probe into the police force in Phoenix to examine whether officers have been using excessive force and abusing people experiencing homelessness

The new Fairfax County police chief revealed his plans for reforming the department and scaling back police pursuits.

The Fairfax County police chief is planning a number of changes that would scale back the amount of reasons an officer can pursue a vehicle. News4’s Drew Wilder reports.

Denver’s STAR pilot program recognizes that a mental health worker and a paramedic may be better suited to respond to some 911 calls than police.

A Denver pilot program called STAR, or Support Team Assisted Response, is changing how the city responds to 911 calls by sending mental health workers and paramedics, rather than police, to respond to calls that don’t involve crimes.

Virginia’s most populous county is moving ahead this week with its plan to outfit police officers with body-worn cameras

Increasing numbers of police officers and civilian law enforcement staff are getting sick as the number of coronavirus cases explodes across the U.S. And the growing tally raises questions about how laws can and should be enforced during the pandemic, and about how departments will hold up as the virus spreads among the ranks of those whose work puts them...

A 2-year-old girl died from bullets fired into her Kensington home Sunday and an 11-month-old boy is in “very, very, very critical condition” after he was shot Saturday night.

Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr. stepped down just one day after a lawsuit filed by two female police officers alleging sexual harassment was amended to include an accusation that one of the women had an affair with him.

Police have charged a Maryland man with first-degree murder of transgender woman Zoe Spears. News4’s Derrick Ward reports.

The chief of a California police department says she left her gun in a restroom and it was immediately stolen and now officials are looking for a man seen in restaurant surveillance video leaving shortly after the weapon vanished.

Starbucks apologized after an employee reportedly asked six police officers to leave or change their location in one of the company’s shops in a Phoenix suburb because another customer reported feeling unsafe. Starbucks said it has “deep respect for the Tempe Police Department” and was apologizing “for any misunderstanding or inappropriate behavior that may have taken place” during the July...

The Metropolitan Police Department’s use of force increased for a second straight year, and new data shows African-Americans are overwhelmingly the target of that force. But Mark Segraves reports the majority of those cases were found to be justified.

Thirteen-year police veteran Evelyn Rivera likes to use a little magic to build connections with her community as a certified magician and clown. Rivera said she’s trying to foster better police-community relations in D.C., sometimes by performing 20 minutes of magic for children before teaching them about her day job as a Metropolitan Police Department officer. News4’s Drew Wilder...

A local high school named after a Confederate general will now be called Washington-Liberty High School.

Thirteen Prince George’s County police officers have come forward, accusing department leadership of discrimination and retaliation. The minority officers say they were punished for reporting other officers’ bad behavior. Prince George’s County Bureau Chief Tracee Wilkins has a closer look at what’s in the lawsuit.

Virginia State Police Officer Steve Mittendorff struggled after his wife’s suicide in 2016, but he is sharing his mental health battle to help other first responders. Doreen Gentzler reports.

Eight-year-old Dakota Matthews of Plainville is on a mission to visit every police department in Massachusetts.