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 public data on PPP loans contains a lot of suspicious patterns, but it can also send people on wild goose chases -
Fraudsters stole billions from the Small Business Administration, via the pandemic-era "Paycheck Protection Program." On Tuesday, the SBA inspector general releases an estimate the size of the fraud -
The Office of Inspector General of the Small Business Administration has released a "landscape of fraud" report highlighting why 17% of PPP and other loans appear bogus. -
The Justice Department, city and police will begin negotiations to set the terms of a consent decree, which will bring federal oversight to police -
Police body cameras have increased accountability for K-9 units, making it easier for defendants to claim unconstitutional searches. A federal lawsuit in Texas illustrates the new dynamic. -
American police see Uvalde as a lesson in what not to do. Trainers say police need to make sure they have the skills and emotional commitment to risk their lives to stop a killer.
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The fatality rate on America's roads remains higher than before the pandemic, and some blame the increase on less traffic policing. -
A new study finds that some police forces are losing officers at a faster pace since 2020. In New Orleans, there's a grudging acceptance that it's time to offload some duties to civilians. -
Many police departments accept they may never get the number of officers they used to have. The New Orleans PD is "retooling" for a new reality that includes handing some duties to civilians.
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To help combat Jackson's per capita murder rate, which is one of the worst in the country, the state Legislature expanded the reach of the Capitol Police. City leaders say they've been sidelined.
