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.
-
Instant facial recognition is ramping up in China and other places, but will U.S. law enforcement follow suit? -
The suspected shooter in the Nashville Waffle House attack legally surrendered his guns in a previous incident. Many states seize guns from people who pose a danger. But how did he get them back?
-
After Stephon Clark's death in Sacramento, many people are wondering whether anything has really changed in the way police use deadly force since Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Mo. -
Despite the real pain and anger over school shootings, the numbers show such incidents are not increasing. But statistics are cold comfort at a school where it's happened. -
Wednesday's mass shooting at a high school in Florida has renewed interest in something called "gun violence protective orders." This is legislation that would allow authorities to take guns away from from people who are believed to be at risk for violent behavior and only a few states have them.
-
Prosecutors and law enforcement in the Seattle area have embarked on a new anti-violence strategy: Make sure the people who've been ordered to give up their guns actually do so. -
Nuclear civil defense fell out of favor in the latter years of the Cold War. But, as North Korea builds its nuclear arsenal, local officials are reluctant to bring it back. -
When a drug-sniffing dog alerts, it usually gives police the right to conduct a search. But how do you know a drug-sniffing dog actually detected the scent of something illegal?
-
Recent mass shootings have shown how law enforcement can fail to prevent attacks by people who are known threats. The system is limited in what it can do, but there's also room for improvement.
-
Devin Patrick Kelley was charged with domestic violence while serving in the Air Force. He was sentenced to confinement for a year. Authorities are now investigating if he could legally buy a gun.
