Martin Kaste
Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.
In addition to criminal justice reporting, Kaste has contributed to NPR News coverage of major world events, including the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2011 uprising in Libya.
Kaste has reported on the government's warrant-less wiretapping practices as well as the data collection and analysis that go on behind the scenes in social media and other new media. His privacy reporting was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 United States v. Jones ruling concerning GPS tracking.
Before moving to the West Coast, Kaste spent five years as NPR's reporter in South America. He covered the drug wars in Colombia, the financial meltdown in Argentina, the rise of Brazilian president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and the fall of Haiti's president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Throughout this assignment, Kaste covered the overthrow of five presidents in five years.
Prior to joining NPR in 2000, Kaste was a political reporter for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul for seven years.
Kaste is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
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The alleged Buffalo shooter, age 18, had no problems buying his semi-automatic rifle. Some states have tried to limit sales to those under 21. A new generation of conservative judges stand in the way.
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The California state senate voted to allow people who aren't United States citizens to be police. Some more conservative voices say government authority should be embodied by citizens.
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Homelessness and drug use became more visible on public transit during the pandemic, worrying commuters. Philadelphia is now pairing cops with social workers to help those in need. -
Police hope to lower the city's raging homicide rate by focusing more resources on shootings that don't kill." We're modeling a lot of our things on what homicide does," says Lt. Dennis Rosenbaum. -
A new study shows a massive increase in police seizures of fentanyl pills, confirming its dramatic takeover of illicit drug consumption in the U.S. The fake pills look safe but are often deadly.
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A study by the National Institutes of Health said pills are the most common form of the drug with a nearly 50-fold increase in law enforcement seizures. -
Flush with money after the 2020 protests, community bail funds are releasing more people from jail. That's getting pushback from those who say they should be more careful about whom is bailed out.
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Academics, activists and police chiefs have been clamoring for national statistics on police use of force. A federal effort to collect those numbers voluntarily from police is floundering.
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Chicago was shaken by the shooting death of 8-year-old Melissa Ortega last Saturday. Nationally, the number of children shot has jumped during the pandemic. -
Specific homeless camps may fuel property crime, but one researcher says on average, camps do not appear to increase city-wide crime rates.
