The sharp indictment of the agency came in an extensive report the federal government released this week after a 14-month “pattern or practice” investigation of the city’s police force.
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Further actions will be taken, he said.
The fight for criminal accountability in the death of Freddie Gray was a courtroom disaster, but Baltimore cops aren’t off the hook yet.
One reporter asked who is responsible for the police department being in this state, given that these issues are systemic. “It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be quick”, she said, estimating that, based on costs in other cities, reforms could cost as much as $10 million dollars per year. “And the Justice Department has nothing to say about that at all”. “Make something up”, the sergeant said. LDF looks forward to working with the BPD in collaboration with Baltimore residents, the Department of Justice, and other stakeholders to develop a reform agenda that should be included in any agreement between the DOJ and Baltimore City officials.
The Department of Justice second most of the statements raised by protesters especially the accusation that Baltimore police officers act in a biased way.
Kevin Davis said during a news conference Wednesday that biased police tactics won’t be tolerated, and that such behavior is “fostering fear in our communities”.
The Justice Department said almost 90 percent of excessive force incidents it identified involved force against African-Americans.
It found that officers make a large number of stops mostly in poor, black neighborhoods with dubious justification and unlawfully arrest citizens when officers “did not like what those individuals said”.
With such a culture in place in many police departments, there can be no confidence in the investigation of police violence against community members without outside independent investigators.
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign said Thursday that the Justice Department’s report on racial disparities in Baltimore policing underscores the need for federal action to overhaul local law enforcement.
“We are committed to making sure these reforms happen”, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday.
Williams was among those reacting Wednesday before the Department of Justice released its report on the police department. He was with his kids and once saw officers chasing a teenager for smoking weed.
“For [reform] to work long term, it has to really be inculcated into the policing system”, he says.
He says police are scared to do their jobs.
The Justice Department said the stops “often lack reasonable suspicion”, and that less than 4 percent of them resulted in any citation or arrest. The investigation also highlights the use of excessive force against people living with mental disability issues and Juveniles, especially when they are black.
He said he was once stopped and harassed by police just because he was in a bad neighborhood. Freddie suffered a serious injury while still in police custody before he later died.
The problems detailed in the 163-page report are broad and deep. Without comprehensive use of force standards that include training on de-escalation and crisis intervention, police interactions will remain risky for both police and those they encounter. The report also revives a public dialogue that surfaced repeatedly on the presidential campaign trail, particularly as former Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, who still defends the zero-tolerance policy, sought the Democratic nomination.
DOJ investigators reviewed the conduct of the department’s officers going back to 2010, interviewing police, city officials, residents and community leaders. These actions were directed toward persons who were not acting suspiciously, offered no suggestion of risky actions and did not pose any immediate threat. But the Rev. Cortly “C.D”.
“Mere words by officials mean little when it’s people on the ground who are living with these material conditions every day”, said the Rev. Heber Brown III, a Baptist pastor who was among a small group of community leaders who met privately past year with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
The report criticizes city police, saying officers unconstitutionally discriminated against African Americans, used excessive force and weren’t equipped with the tools needed to effectively police. However, blacks are only 63 percent of the city’s population.
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The findings are expected to lead to a consent decree laying out specific changes that the department must make in order to improve, according to the Wall Street Journal.
