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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Washington State has banned the sale of assault weapons. Gun safety groups hail the restrictions, but gun rights advocates call it "virtue signaling" doomed to fail at the Supreme Court.
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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. -
Traffic deaths spiked in the U.S. in 2020 and have remained elevated since. Some blame reduced deterrence for unsafe drivers, as police are stopping fewer motorists.
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Members of Congress are hearing calls for gun legislation following the Nashville school shooting, but federal changes aren't likely. Polarized politics have pushed any action to the states.
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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. -
The fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis Police's "Scorpion" team has revived a decades-old debate over whether special police units have a tendency to go rogue.
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New documents are revealing more about the case against five Memphis cops charged in Tyre Nichols' death. They are accused of not activating their body cams and sharing a photo of the injured man.
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In the wake of the killing of Tyre Nichols, the Memphis Police Department has disbanded the specialized unit known as "Scorpion." Here's a look at the concept of "hot spot policing" and why it's done.
