On today’s episode, Don’t Touch Your Face hosts James Palmer and Amy Mackinnon look at the relationship between the pandemic and protests in the United States and around the world. They’re joined by Margaret Burnham, the director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University, and Roudabeh Kishi, the director of research […]

From mandatory body cameras and reports anytime an officer has used their weapon to the expansion of civilian complaint boards, some union leaders have pushed back on proposed changes — for decades in some instances, according to Jack McDevitt, the director of Northeastern University’s Institute on Race and Justice.

It’s time to double down on electric vehicles, says Northeastern professor Joan Fitzgerald.

Education needs to shed school resource officers and the criminalization of student misconduct. This would be an investment in success for all kids, says Northeastern professor James Alan Fox.

Regardless of the COVID-19 precautions protesters take, there is still a degree of unavoidable risk inherent in mass demonstrations. But staying home from protests against racism is also a risk, since the same structural racism that results in black men disproportionately dying at the hands of police officers fuels racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths, according […]

A recent survey led by researchers from Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern University, and Rutgers University supports this trend as well. The study found a majority of people in the U.S. want to continue physical distancing measures, even as the federal government and some state governors are pushing to reopen the economy.

“You know Philly, there is no shortage of drugs on the street,” said Leo Beletsky, a drug policy researcher and professor at Northeastern University.Beletsky said an increase in the availability of prescription opioid drugs might even have a positive overall health effect, as it could cause people who use to switch from heroin or fentanyl, […]

“There really has never been a successful effort to share comprehensive open data sources during any of the modern epidemics,” says Samuel V. Scarpino, who runs the Emergent Epidemics Lab at Northeastern University.

Deborah Ramirez is a professor of law at Northeastern University School of Law. She works with the US House Judiciary Committee on police reform issues and issues related to racial profiling. 

“What’s certainly different is the widespread belief that we are taking a different approach, but the reality on the ground is very much different,” Leo Beletsky, professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University, told The Appeal.

“You have to communicate way more than you ever thought was necessary — it feels weird at first, but then it becomes more normal,” Barbara Larson, an executive professor of management at Northeastern University, told me. 

Early in his career as a Minneapolis police officer, Michael A. Davis, now Northeastern University’s chief of police, realized he was being dispatched to calls where he was not necessary: Petty arguments between adults; undefined suspicious behavior; loitering.