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 San Jose City Council has approved the nation's first law requiring gun owners to have liability insurance. City leaders hope it will reduce gun violence. Gun owners say they're being harassed.
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Specific homeless camps may fuel property crime, but one researcher says on average, camps do not appear to increase city-wide crime rates. -
The trial of former officer Kimberly Potter in Minnesota for shooting a suspect when she says she thought she had a Taser in her hand has revived worrying questions about Taser design and use.
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Brazen shoplifting is caught on video, but hard numbers for shoplifting don't really exist. Nonetheless, merchants say it's growing fast and online retailers are partly to blame.
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Detractors to bail reform and early release are using the case of Darrell Brooks as a warning. Brooks, accused of driving into a Wisconsin Christmas parade, received low bail for a previous charge.
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A wide array of apps will display your vaccination status, but privacy experts say they don't all do the same thing. Some require more personal data, and leading brand CLEAR uses facial recognition -
The failed ballot measure proposed a new Department of Public Safety that would emphasize a public health approach to policing. -
Minneapolis may become the first big city to eliminate its traditional police department. A Nov. 2 ballot question would replace it with a "Department of Public Safety."
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A year after historic protests calling for police reform, communities across the country have grappled with what that reform should look like amid rising violence and funding questions.
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New York's mayor accuses courts of being slow to get back up to speed, saying they're needed to combat violent crime. Have slower courts and fewer pretrial detentions added to the spike in violence?
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A board in California has recommended parole for Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of killing Sen. Robert F. Kennedy at a Los Angeles hotel in 1968. The governor will decide whether he is freed.
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Resettlement agencies are receiving a huge wave of Afghan refugees. A church-based group in Seattle welcomes the new arrivals, and puts out the call for volunteers and spare bedrooms.
