The DOJ spent more than a year monitoring the police department at the city’s request, according to CNN. “It’s going to take time, and it’s going to require a focused and sustained effort”.
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VANITA GUPTA, U.S. Department of Justice: These violations have deeply eroded the trust between BPD and the community it serves, trust that is essential to effective policing, as well as to officer and public safety.
Baltimore police officers made at least 300,000 pedestrian stops from January 2010 to May 2015.
In addition to pat-downs, Baltimore officers performed unconstitutional public strip searches, even of people not under arrest, the report said.
Gray’s death ignited widespread protests in Baltimore and in other cities, coming in the middle of a parade of deaths of unarmed black people during police stops or while in police custody. The report blames “systemic deficiencies in BPD’s policies, training, supervision, and accountability structures”, as responsible for the troubling outcomes. “This fractured relationship exists in part because of the Department’s legacy of zero tolerance enforcement, the failure of many BPD officers to implement community policing principles, and the Department’s lack of vision for engaging with the community”. The Justice Department report also found that Baltimore police officers tend to treat minors the same as they do adults and have no training in dealing with those with mental health issues. “The report and its follow-up will help to heal the relationship between the police and our communities”. Kairys initially thought the “Cold Turkey” consent decree would bring about significant reform, but he came to the disappointing realization that it did not.
The Justice Department, after its 14-month investigation, said despite that change, the old practices persisted. The agreement sets preliminary areas of reform, which will eventually lead to a legally-binding consent decree, and will be overseen by an independent monitor.
During a duel news conference with both Baltimore and Justice Department officials, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said, “Change is painful”.
“Change is painful”, Davis said, “but nothing is as painful as being stuck in a place that we do not belong”.
Six officers, three white and three black, were charged in Gray’s arrest and death. The Department of Justice has documented heinous mistreatment of minorities in Cleveland, Ferguson, New Orleans, and elsewhere and deep-seated racial disparities persist nationwide at every juncture of the justice system. Mac Donald said she believes the numbers will only further deteriorate as the city continues to abandon its zero-tolerance approach. Three were acquitted at bench trials, however, and Mosby recently dropped all charges against the remainingofficers.
Final details of the agreement will be completed by November, officials said. Department transport vehicles have also been outfitted with new safety equipment, including cameras, she said, and the department started a new body camera program.
“They only put out there what they want to put just to get the votes and get what they need to get in, and once they get in, they don’t care”, Ross said.
“Nearly everyone who spoke to us … agreed the Baltimore Police Department needs sustainable reform”, Gupta said.
“One African American man in his mid-fifties was stopped 30 times in less than four years”.
The report also found that some Baltimore officers asked for sex in exchanged for not arresting women. Still, Void was arrested.
There were several examples of officers ordered to “clear corners,” and in another instance a sergeant wrote about the practice, “I used to say at roll call in NE when I ran the shift: Do not treat criminals like citizens”.
“There was five of them”. They don’t let him sit in front of his house; they’ve arrested his friends without probable cause. “I had to tell my kids they were just playing”.
“Seeing it all collected and pulled together really hit me in the solar plexus”, said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who lived in Baltimore for 15 years while teaching law at the University of Maryland.
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”. “And I really don’t care, I am not searching you”.
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