Jan. 29, 2024: The best thing I've read this week

I started reading this investigative series today after listening to ProPublica's Eric Umansky discuss his reporting on The Daily podcast. The stories are about how police use body cameras and how the transparency and accountability that were supposed to follow body cam-usage rarely came to be.

The main article was released in mid-December last year, but  it had an immediate impact as the New York Police Department changed course and decided to stop the practice of denying body-cam footage of police shootings to civilian investigators.

But the one story in this joint investigation -- between ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine -- that really gave me pause was Umansky's own story about the night he and his neighbors witnessed a police cruiser hit a Black boy in the street and what happened after. It piques interest and makes one understand why a reporter would take on this cumbersome project. It's pretty amazing and it's the best thing I've read this week.