Fighting Crime

We all need the right training to do our jobs properly. So what do cops need so they can make better decisions in high-stakes and time-sensitive situations? In this episode we speak to economists about simple and effective training methods which help cops arrest the right people and keep us safer, which also cost next to nothing. We’d love to hear from anyone in policing about interesting things you are trying: Contact us at: [email protected] Guests: Paul Noel, Chief of Police, Knoxville Police Department Dr Emily Owens, University of California, Irvine Dr Oeindrila Dube, University of Chicago Sources: Emily Owens, David Weisburd, Karen L. Amendola, Geoffrey P. Alpert, Can You Build a Better Cop? Experimental Evidence on Supervision, Training and Policing in the Community; Criminology and Public Policy, Volume 17, Issue 1 (2018) Oeindrila Dube, Sandy Jo MacArthur, Anuj K. Shah, A Cognitive View of Policing; The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 140, Issue 1, February 2025 Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

The use of DNA evidence has revolutionized crime investigations over the past 30 years, helping to catch criminals and keep us all safer. But are we fully using DNA’s potential to catch criminals? In this episode, a victim of sexual assault tells their powerful story of how DNA analysis led to justice, and how exactly DNA can be used to prevent crimes before they even happen. Guests: Ashley Spence, Survivor, and Founder, DNA Justice Project Tiffany Roy, Professor of Forensic DNA Analysis David Rausch, Director, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Max Isaacs, Director of Technology Law & Policy, The Policing Project Jennifer Doleac, Economist Sources: Jennifer Doleac, Anne Sofie Anker and Rasmus Landersø, The Effects of DNA Databases on the Deterrence and Detection of Offenders; American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Vol. 13, No. 4, October 2021 Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

American prisons are not designed to be welcoming places. But what if the American prison experience was reimagined, to the benefit of corrections officers and inmates? In this episode, we head to an experimental prison housing unit in Pennsylvania, which is trying to do just that, by incorporating the ethos of a Scandinavian prison. Guests: Allison Murphy, Assistant to the SCI Chester Superintendent Paige Devane, Corrections Officer, Little Scandinavia Gina Clark, SCI Chester Superintendent Professor Jordan Hyatt, Director of the Center for Public Policy, Drexel University Bret Bucklen, Research Director, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Sources: With thanks to John Stark and Swedish Television for the stills and footage from their documentary "Prison Project: Little Scandinavia" © Swedish Television SVT, 2023 Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

Getting a good job after prison is one of the best ways to beat recidivism. But what does the evidence actually say about getting formerly incarcerated people back into work? In this episode, we discover some ideas that are helping and hindering people in getting jobs. The solutions are cheaper and simpler than you might expect. Guests: Coss Marte, founder of ConBody and ConBud Dr Amanda Agan, Cornell University Dr Zoe Cullen, Harvard Business School Sources: Amanda Agan, Sonja Starr, Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Racial Discrimination: A Field Experiment; The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 133, Issue 1, February (2018) Zoe B. Cullen, Will S. Dobbie, and Mitchell Hoffman, Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record, NBER Working Paper 29947 (2022) Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

There are a bunch of ways to improve public safety that no one is talking about. Launching May 28th, Fighting Crime will dive into the world of crime, policy, and economics, to uncover the evidence of what actually works to improve public safety. It’s not true crime - it’s the truth about crime.