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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Inmates and guards don't have the option of staying home during a coronavirus outbreak, so detention centers risk becoming "incubators" for the disease. Some are scrambling to mitigate the risk. -
Hospitals are clearing space and preparing staff for a possible crush of patients needing critical care. -
Most people with the coronavirus get only mild symptoms, but some need intensive care. If the wave of infections is big enough, the very sick patients could swamp hospital intensive care units.
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The first U.S. death related to COVID-19 has been reported in Washington state. Officials are also investigating a reported case in a health worker and a possible outbreak in a nursing facility.
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Encryption is going mainstream, and some tech companies "throw away the key" so they can't decrypt messages even when police get a warrant. The government says that's taking privacy too far. -
"End-to-end encryption" has gone mainstream, which means tech companies can't decrypt messages even when law enforcement has a warrant. The Trump administration says that's taking privacy too far.
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Backlash is building among police and prosecutors weeks after New York eliminated bail for most non-violent offenses. They say courts should be able to keep certain offenders in jail before trial.
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Local police often don't feel equipped to investigate cybercrime. The NYPD is trying to teach patrol officers to ask the right questions about IP addresses, Bitcoin and phone spoofing. -
NPR correspondent Martin Kaste reflects on his reporting on law enforcement over the last decade.
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New York City has stricter gun laws than most other American cities — and lower rates of gun violence. But legal challenges could force the city to loosen its gun control. Will a rise in crime follow?
