The Justice Department will release a long-awaited report on Wednesday about the Baltimore Police Department.
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The highest-ranking police officer tried for the death of Freddie Gray will receive almost $127,000 in back pay from the Baltimore Police Department.
The federal investigators said officers are poorly trained, and the department has fostered a culture where complaints against police are often ignored. “Now it’s about justice for our community, for our people”.
Physical force is used unnecessarily, including against the mentally disabled, and black pedestrians and drivers are disproportionately searched during stops, the report says. The report found widespread civil rights abuses by authorities, including systematic racial discrimination in the Missouri city’s police department and municipal court. The report said some were even strip-searched in public.
Gray, 25, died previous year after he was arrested by police and transported to a booking precinct.
Baltimore’s former mayor, Martin O’Malley, instituted zero-tolerance policing in 1999, a practice that filled the jails and resulted in more than 100,000 arrests a year. After O’Malley left office in 2007, city leaders cut arrests to about 40,000 and publicly stated that arresting large numbers of people had little impact on curbing crime.
Investigators found a stark difference in public perception of the police department when talking to different communities.
If someone complained about police misconduct, it was handled by a deeply flawed internal affairs system rigged in favor of officers. Likewise, African-Americans make up 95 percent of the 410 people stopped at least 10 times by officers from 2010 to 2015.
During the same time period, officers stopped 34 black residents 20 times, and seven African-Americans 30 times or more, while the report says that no individuals of any other race were stopped more than 12 times.
One 22-year-old black man was detained merely for walking through an area known for high crime and drugs. In one case, one black man in his mid-50s was stopped 30 times in less than four years, yet none of the stops resulted in a citation or criminal charge.
“I’m positive that the Department of Justice report will lead to even more reforms, which is an important step in ensuring best practices for a fully functioning police-prosecutor relationship”. African Americans make up 63 percent of the city’s population but account for 86 percent of criminal charges issued by police. Individual trials ended with the acquittals of three and prosecutors dropped the charges against the other three, citing a lack of confidence in securing any convictions.
The long anticipated report has allegedly found that police “routinely violated the constitutional rights of residents by conducting unlawful stops and using excessive force” the Sun reports. Officers often employed excessive force on people with mental-health problems, minors and even people who were restrained and presented no threat to police.
DOJ investigators found a police force infected by an “us-versus-them” mentality, with officers throughout the chain of command who “openly harbor antagonistic feelings towards community members”.
The report is a damning indictment of how officers carry out the most fundamental of policing practices, such as traffic stops and searches and responding to First Amendment expression.
The report criticizes the department for underreporting the number of people that officers stop. The investigation found that the department “improperly interferes with individuals who record police activity”.
The media relations team of the police department could not be reached Tuesday night.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said Tuesday that he looked forward to reviewing the federal findings. He said they will help him improve the force.
By the time the van arrived at the police station, Gray was unresponsive. Critics said the collapse proved the prosecution was misguided from the start, while Mosby defended her actions and accused the police of undermining the investigation.
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While no consent decree has been reached, the report states that the city and the Justice Department have agreed in principle to identify “categories of reforms the parties agree must be taken to remedy the violations of the Constitution and federal law described in this report”.
