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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While Congress and many governors try to block or slow down President Obama's pledge to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees, Canada is pressing ahead with a plan to welcome 25,000 in the next six weeks. -
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. -
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 become a hot topic for the nation's police chiefs, who are meeting this week in Chicago.
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"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. -
The New York Police Department is rolling out a new policy to record officers' use of force. The strategy has already been implemented in L.A. and Seattle. Advocates say it's an effective way to limit force; but cops say it's burdensome bureaucracy, and causes them to lay off potential criminals.
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The ambush killing of a sheriff's deputy in Texas has intensified concern in some circles that criticism of police has led to an increase in officer deaths. But the data don't back up that fear. -
For all the talk of police militarization, no reliable statistics exist on the number of raids by SWAT or other heavily armed tactical teams. There are no federal or state tallies — except in Utah. -
Does legalization of marijuana mean more drivers will have the drug in their system? New data from Washington state says yes, but does that mean pot has caused more accidents? The answer is unclear.
