Law enforcement

Baton Rouge has been selected to receive federal funding through the Justice Department's Model Cities Initiative, a $300 million competitive grant program aimed at addressing police staffing shortages. Jackson, Mississippi; Jacksonville, Florida; and St. Louis, Missouri, were also chosen. Exact grant amounts have not yet been announced by Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Funds can go toward hiring, training and retention, equipment and technology such as license plate readers and drones, and mental health and substance use services. U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy helped East Baton Rouge Parish leaders apply. Some eligible cities, including Houston, declined funding over concerns about conditions tied to administration policies. Applications were open to jurisdictions over 100,000 people, due by September 1.

Haywood County, North Carolina voters choose a new sheriff on Nov. 3, with Democrat Tyler Howell facing Republican Mark Mease after both won March primaries; Mease ousted incumbent Sheriff Bill Wilke in the GOP contest. Howell rose from police dispatcher to patrol officer and has spent years in community policing with the Waynesville Police Department. Mease built his career at the Haywood County Sheriff's Office, from narcotics investigator to captain, before joining Cherokee Tribal Police.

Both candidates emphasize rebuilding community trust, improving rural deputy presence, and addressing mental health and addiction in sentencing. They differ slightly on Flock surveillance cameras, with both backing the tool but citing privacy and oversight concerns. Early voting ended Oct. 31.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is sending roughly 1,000 federal monitors nationwide for Election Day, including to Pennsylvania counties where state law bars them from entering polling places. DOJ has said ICE and FBI personnel won't serve as monitors, though staff from agencies like the DEA, ATF and Federal Bureau of Prisons may participate without firearms or enforcement authority. Chicago has coordinated security with police, the FBI and emergency officials amid concerns over immigration enforcement near polling sites, while a coalition of civil rights groups is deploying lawyers and poll monitors. California is separately sending attorneys and observers to battleground districts, and DOJ continues legal challenges over noncitizen voter rolls.

Two serious crashes on Orange County's State Road 429 within five days have renewed attention on Florida's Move Over law. On October 23, six people died when a speeding SUV without headlights struck a Road Ranger's truck near Weatherby Road. Days later, on October 27, an FHP trooper was seriously injured and airlifted to a hospital after being hit during a lane-closure operation; the driver faces pending charges.

State data shows 170 Move Over crashes in Florida this year, with three deaths, and 385 crashes over the past two years. Officials expanded the law in January 2025 to cover hazard-light situations like roadside tire changes, though awareness remains low. Retired FHP Chief Joe Lopez urged stiffer penalties to improve compliance.

Ohio officials have launched new measures to combat domestic violence after state data showed 70% of people arrested for the offense over 50 years were repeat offenders, with 134 domestic violence deaths recorded in the state between July 2025 and June 2026. The Ohio Department of Public Safety's Office of Criminal Justice Services approved $1 million in grants split among 55 shelters and created a program funding ballistic shields for responding officers. Working with the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, the state is also updating its decades-old law enforcement handbook and rolling out lethality-assessment training to help officers identify survivors at highest risk, with the first of seven sessions set for next month.

The Marion County Election Board says 12 federal monitors, who are not law enforcement officers, will be present in the county on Election Day, with additional monitors also expected in Lake County. Both counties are represented by Democratic members of Congress. Monitors will be barred from vote centers but may observe from outside polling locations, according to County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell. The Department of Justice says the deployment is routine monitoring occurring nationwide, focused on disability-access compliance, language-assistance rules, and provisional ballot handling. Poll workers have received written protocol for interacting with federal officials. Officials emphasized voters cannot be required to speak with monitors.

Minnesota's midterm ballot features competitive races for three constitutional offices. Incumbent Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) faces attorney Ron Schutz (R) in a contest seen as a potential GOP breakthrough, as Republicans haven't won that office in 60 years. Secretary of State Steve Simon (D) faces former state Rep. Tad Jude (R), plus Green and Libertarian candidates, over election oversight and voter ID. For state auditor, Zack Filipovich (D) faces Scott Jensen (R) and a Forward Independence candidate to replace retiring incumbent Julie Blaha, who won in 2022 by the narrowest margin of any statewide race that year.

All three offices also serve as checks on the governor and oversee state retirement investments, raising their stakes beyond their core duties.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul are leading a multistate lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene, accusing the Treasury Department and its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of gutting the Corporate Transparency Act. The 2021 bipartisan law required businesses to disclose ownership information to help authorities track money laundering, shell companies, and fraud. A FinCEN rule issued in August 2026 exempted roughly 99.9% of businesses from reporting and the agency moved to delete existing ownership data. The suit, joined by nearly 20 states and Washington, D.C., claims the changes violate federal rulemaking law and seeks to restore the database.