Police

Five and a half years ago, when the beating of 24-year old bartender Karolina Obrycka by Chicago Police Officer Anthony Abbate first made the news, I argued that the beating itself wasn't the real news story: ...It is rumored that some cops offered Obrycka a bribe if she would back off, and then threatened to plant drugs in the bar and in Obrycka's car if she didn't back … [Read more...] about Chicago To Pay For Not Watching the Watchers

So here's a disturbing story about a death in police custody: The FBI said Thursday it will join the police investigation into the death of Chavis Carter, the 21-year-old man shot in the head while handcuffed in the back of a police car in Jonesboro, Ark. The investigation comes amid lingering questions over who pulled the trigger. Police said he committed suicide with a gun … [Read more...] about A Death That Rings a Bell

I once heard a story -- I'm not sure where, but it seemed reputable at the time -- about a Ford automotive plant where one of the assembly line workers realized, after some time assembling cars, that he had been doing it wrong. He told his boss, and Ford had to pull hundreds of cars from the delivery process and re-work them to fix his mistake, at a cost of over a million … [Read more...] about Statistical Quality Control Meets the NYPD