Martin Kaste

Local police and emergency services in the U.S. have been preparing for a new reality: a strategic attack by terrorists who use diversionary tactics to maximize chaos and death.

To combat homegrown terrorism, community engagement officers in some cities are building relationships with Muslims. The hope is to increase trust — and the likelihood that threats will be reported.

San Bernardino police deployed heavy equipment to Wednesday's mass shooting. Military-style armor and vehicles can make police more secure but raise concerns that cops will become militarized.

Police and prosecutors work together — it's the nature of the legal system. That closeness can be problematic when it comes to investigating police misconduct. One idea is to bring in outsiders.

The numbers remain small, and hard to quantify, but prosecutors seem to be under pressure to charge police in on-duty shootings, and the "benefit of the doubt" they enjoyed seems to be eroding.

Mohammed Alsaleh came to Canada a year ago, after being tortured in Syria by the regime of President Bashar Assad. Now, the 26-year-old sits in a Starbucks in Vancouver, dressed in blue scrubs from his nurse's aid training, and he recalls the shock of arriving in this peaceful, rainy city.

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The Columbine shootings taught police to get in quickly and disrupt the attack. Multi-site attacks like Paris and Mumbai require a step back, to get the wider picture and best use of resources.

Federal and state investigators in Idaho are looking into the shooting of a rancher by sheriff's deputies. The rancher was trying to put down a bull that was involved in a traffic accident when he was shot.

Reliable data has been missing from the national debate. That's changing. An analysis by NPR member station KPCC found that from 2010 to 2014, 375 people were shot — and no officers were prosecuted.

The director's recent comments, in which he described police shootings as "murder," have drawn calls for boycotting his films. They also reveal a bitter fault line in 2016: Who supports the police?

Police shopping for body cameras face a dizzying array of features. And it's more than just technological gee-whiz-ery: the type of camera has a profound effect on how it's used and for whose benefit.

President Obama reached out to an international meeting of police chiefs in Chicago on Tuesday, assuring them that law enforcement is still appreciated, despite recent protests and viral videos.

FBI Director James Comey told a meeting of police chiefs Monday that increased scrutiny is having an impact on law enforcement. He said he believes police have become more reluctant t...

Earlier this month, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said some police are holding back, afraid of ending up on a viral video. Friday, the FBI director seemed to echo that concern. It's beco...

Ohio joins the growing list of states that have put death sentences on hold because of problems getting execution drugs. Justice Antonin Scalia told an audience Tuesday he wouldn't be...

Experts say the field of forensic DNA is having a moment of truth about years of overstated claims, and it may tarnish its reputation as the "gold standard" of legal evidence.

"Talking about firearms now is like talking about race" among officers, says a national law enforcement leader. In Milwaukee, for instance, a sheriff and police chief took vocal, opposing stances.

At the heart of Peace Officer, a new documentary out this month, stands a man named William "Dub" Lawrence. A former sheriff, Lawrence comes off as a somber figure — a man capable of calmly reconstructing the death of his suicidal son-in-law, who was shot in a standoff with ...