Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said while the findings of the report are “challenging to hear, ” the investigation creates a “crucial foundation” that will allow Baltimore to change the department.
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Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division, told reporters in Baltimore today that investigators combed through “hundreds of thousands of pages of documents – covering 2010 to 2016 – including policies and training materials, internal affairs files, data on stops, searches, and arrests and use-of-force reports”.
In 2015, the Justice Department released an in-depth report into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. “He says the findings indicate the city has “a law enforcement emergency” that requires prompt and thorough action”.
After an investigation into the Baltimore Police Department, the Justice Department has concluded that the department is guilty of unconstitutionally stopping, searching, and arresting African-Americans by doing so far more than they do other races.
It is just as if the Department of Justice spoke out the hearts of all Black Americans with regards to the outrageous instances of gross racism, injustice and police brutalities.
In his own remarks, Davis assuaged his officers by clarifying that this is not a condemnation of the whole department, but the “bad behaviors by a relatively small number of police officers over many, many years”.
Officials warned, however, that changing a department entrenched in a culture of unconstitutional policing would be a slow process and could cost millions. According to the Justice Department, which interviewed a victim advocate, a detective in the Sex Offense Unit said that “all [their] cases are bullsh-t”.
The inquiry found that a police force rooted in “zero tolerance” enforcement that started in 1999 but ended a decade ago has created a deep divide between police and many members of the community it serves.
Ultimately, the Cleveland consent decree did not include explicit youth-centered requirements, but Celeste said the idea that kids are different than adults has become a part of the conversation about how to implement the reforms.
Danny Marrow, a retired food service worker, said that over the years, he has been stopped and hassled repeatedly by police. But if fellow officers can’t trust that they can stand up to one another, actual change will likely remain in a standstill.
The racial disparities in BPD’s stops and searches are further reflected in BPD’s arrest practices.
The report being issued Wednesday finds that the city’s police routinely discriminate against blacks, use excessive force and aren’t adequately disciplined for misconduct. Witherspoon, president of the Baltimore chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said in a statement Wednesday that for those who have been fighting what he calls the “War Against Police Brutality”, the reports contains no startling revelations.
In addition, the Baltimore Police Department failed to properly train officers in de-escalation tactics nor to address matters relating to excessive force, causing the department to use physical force when unnecessary.
With the DOJ’s investigation complete, city and federal officials will begin to negotiate a consent decree, an agreement that lays out reforms the police department will undertake.
Six officers were charged in the death of Gray.
The anecdote highlights a widespread problem many critics have pointed out among police departments: the “blue wall of silence”, an unofficial code among cops that when a fellow officer is accused of wrongdoing, it’s better to say nothing than to condemn a fellow officer.
The court-enforceable decree will mandate that the department must commit to improving its procedures or face a lawsuit.
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Gray, 25, died after suffering a neck injury while in police custody in April 2015, igniting protests and illuminating tension and distrust between the black community and Baltimore’s police force.
