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 trial of Jennifer Crumbley over murders committed by her son, Ethan, has focused attention on the legal responsibilities of parents and other adults when it comes to minors and guns.
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The Supreme Court has made history a central test of whether a gun control law is constitutional. That has meant a boom in demand for gun law historians, who are digging up forgotten old gun laws. -
Since the pandemic, many jails have moved to video systems as the only way to visit incarcerated loved ones. A new movement seeks to restore in-person visits -
It's peak season for retail sales — and for retail theft, which stores say has become more frequent and brazen. Their complaints have led to new efforts to try to stop the wave of retail theft.
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The Maine mass shooting suspect is still at-large. Army reservist Robert Card was taken for a mental health evaluation this summer after military officials became concerned about his behavior.
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A federal court in New Mexico has let stand, for the time being, a controversial gun ban in Albuquerque's parks and playgrounds. The governor frames the ban as a response to a public health emergency.
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Last week, California became the first state to ban the use of "excited delirium" as an official cause of death. The medical term has long been controversial when it comes to policing.
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Police officers are on trial or facing charges in multiple state-level murder cases this fall. But if you look at national numbers, the trend toward more police prosecutions is not that clear.
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COVID aid fraud was rampant countrywide, but thousands of Chicago residents appear to have taken money for bogus businesses. Officials say they may have to concentrate on only the worst cases.
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A comic book-worthy device is the latest entry into the market for "less lethal" police weapons. The company promises safer arrests, but part of the appeal for departments may be the optics.
