Year end reviews are a time-honored tradition in print journalism. Looking back on the year’s crime stories may not match the feel-good quality of other reviews, but it may highlight our progress on the many challenges we have faced. And vice versa.

So, here is a laundry list of the most popular topics addressed in Blue Byline this past year (based on site visits and commentary).

January: We began the year with the steamy topic of marijuana legislation. The state legislature was under a great deal of pressure to fix the gaping, truck-sized holes in the then current statute, and …

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I was enduring a day-long training class this past week when the instructor made a comment that made me sit up straight. “Denial,” he said, “is a defense mechanism that kicks in when a person rejects what is true, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”

It’s not often that the words of Sigmund Freud get tossed around in police circles. It was a lesson for the cops in the room that if we ignore obvious information just because it is sudden or unpleasant (such as the sudden appearance of a weapon in the hands of an unlikely opponent), bad things …

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A young man is fatally shot and his killer goes free. This may be the story of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, but it is only the latest incarnation of an oft replicated theme.

In 2009, a local gang member shot and killed a young man, and I was dispatched to the initial call. During the investigation I learned that the gang member instigated a fight with the victim before he resorting to the cowardly act of shooting him. He fled on foot, but was soon caught and arrested. To my utter dismay, he was released without charges and remains free to …

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The anger radiating out of Sanford, Florida, is palpable. The killing of Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, has energized the country unlike any single death in recent memory.

The rising tide of anger has washed up in other parts of the country; thousands have gathered for protests against Martin’s killing in cities such as Los and New York City, Miami and Chicago. His death is largely seen as a racial issue involving a Hispanic shooter and a white police department that has so far failed to deliver justice in the form of an arrest. Groups such as the …

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The alleged shooting death of a Florida youth by a citizen watch volunteer has officially crossed over from tragedy to spectacle.

Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-0ld African-American, was reportedly shot after being confronted by Robert Zimmerman, an armed resident voluntarily patrolling the gated community in Sanford. Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self-defense, but the 911 tape and excerpts from Martin’s last phone conversation suggest otherwise.

As a result, Sanford, a suburb of Orlando, is currently hosting an armada of civil rights tourists, including the NAACP, the ACLU, the National of Islam and the Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights. The …

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