Police Misconduct Will Excessive Force, Racial Profiling Be Curbed?
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Res earc her Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. CQ www.cqresearcher.com Police Misconduct Will excessive force, racial profiling be curbed? he U.S. Department of Justice is stepping up its oversight of local police departments, pressuring them to l imit the use of force in civilian encounters and T eliminate racial profiling during traffic stops and other enforcement. Over the past year, the Justice Department’s c ivil rights division has criticized long-troubled police agencies in such places as New Orleans, Seattle and Maricopa County, Ariz., which includes Phoenix. The department’s power stems from a 1994 law allowing A protester holds up a photo of wood carver John T. Williams, a hearing-impaired Native American killed the federal government to identify a “pattern or practice” of consti - by Seattle Police Sgt. Ian Birk in 2010. A fixture at a nearby social service center, Williams was shot after failing to respond to Birk’s order to drop an open tutional violations and threaten court action to force police agencies carving knife. The Feb. 16, 2011, demonstration was to protest the King County prosecutor’s decision to adopt changes. Seattle officials have proposed a detailed plan to not to charge Birk, who later resigned. answer the government’s criticisms, but negotiations are stalled in New Orleans and Maricopa County, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio is I N balking at the government’s demand for court supervision of policy THIS REPORT S changes. Meanwhile, the racially charged shooting death of a THE ISSUES ....................303 I Florida teenager by a neighborhood watch volunteer has focused BACKGROUND ................310 D attention on police handling of the case. CHRONOLOGY ................311 E CURRENT SITUATION ........316 CQ Researcher • April 6, 2012 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ........................317 Volume 22, Number 13 • Pages 301-324 OUTLOOK ......................319 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ................322 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ..............323 POLICE MISCONDUCT CQ Re search er April 6, 2012 THE ISSUES SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Volume 22, Number 13 • Should police do more Justice Department Targets MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri 303 to control excessive force? 304 Police Misconduct [email protected] • Should police do more The federal government has ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch to prevent racial and ethnic found police misconduct in [email protected] such localities as New Orleans, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin profiling? Seattle and East Haven, Conn. • Should police adopt [email protected] stronger disciplinary mea - Killings of Arrestees by ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost sures for misconduct? 305 Police on Rise STAFF WRITER: Marcia Clemmitt Police committed 2,931 arrest - BACKGROUND related killings from 2003 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Glazer, through 2009. Alan Greenblatt , Peter Katel , Police Problems Barbara Mantel, Jennifer Weeks 310 Police misconduct has been Police Handle Tense DESIGN /P RODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis a problem since the 1800s. 307 Situations in Steps Agencies employ a “use of ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa 313 Police Accountability force continuum.” FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris Major police departments Half of Arrest-Related were beset by scandals 308 Killings Are of Minorities during the final decades Blacks and Hispanics made of the 20th century. up more than half of those killed while under arrest 313 Changing Priorities from 2003 through 2009. An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. Oversight of police conduct VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, took a more aggressive 311 Chronology HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: stance under President Key events since 1960. Michele Sordi Obama. Supreme Court Eases DIRECTOR, ONLINE PUBLISHING: 312 Rules on Police Searches Todd Baldwin Evidence gleaned illegally CURRENT SITUATION Copyright © 2012 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - allowed in criminal trials. lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. Investigations Urged Police Under Scrutiny in 316 Citizens groups in several 314 No part of this publication may be reproduced Trayvon Martin Case electronically or otherwise, without prior written cities want the Justice De - Critics question handling of partment to examine po - shooting. permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis - sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of lice agencies with records federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. of fatal shootings. At Issue 317 Is the exclusionary rule CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional Reforms Outlined needed to deter illegal police Quarterly Inc. searches? 318 Seattle is preparing to CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- adopt a plan to overhaul free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (March wk. 5) its police procedures, but FOR FURTHER RESEARCH (May wk. 4) (July wk. 1) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. wk. reform efforts in New 4) and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publica - Orleans have hit a snag. For More Information tions, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. 321 Organizations to contact. Annual full-service subscriptions start at $1,054. For pricing, call 1-800-834-9020. To purchase a CQ Re - OUTLOOK Bibliography searcher report in print or electronic format (PDF), 322 Selected sources used. visit www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single Police Under Pressure reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and 319 Budget cuts and homeland The Next Step electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals 323 postage paid at Thousand Oaks, California, and at security concerns add to Additional articles . the pressures on police. additional mailing offices . POST MAST ER: Send ad dress Citing CQ Researcher chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, 323 Sample bibliography formats. Wash ing ton, DC 20037. Cover: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren 302 CQ Researcher Police Misconduct BY KENNETH JOST wide- ranging reforms to be THE ISSUES supervised by a federal court. The negotiations follow a endell Allen was scathing report by the Justice wearing only pa - Department’s civil rights division W jama bottoms in March 2011 that accused the when New Orleans police of - New Orleans police of routine ficers on a marijuana raid constitutional violations, in - broke into his house in the cluding use of excessive force, city’s middle-class Gentilly improper searches and racial neighborhood on the evening and ethnic discrimination . 3 of March 7. Armed with a The 158-page report is one search warrant, six officers, of nine published so far by clad in plain clothes covered the civil rights division’s so- by jackets identifying them called “special litigation sec - as police, announced their tion” under President Obama presence and, after receiving that have held police depart - no response, barged in. ments around the country up Allen, a 20-year-old former r to highly critical scrutiny. In e b high school basketball star with r three reports published with - o S a previous marijuana- related g in five days in mid-December, e conviction, was in the stair - r Justice Department investiga - G / l well, unarmed, when Officer a tors upbraided Seattle police n Joshua Colclough fired a sin - r for use of excessive force and u o J gle gunshot that hit Allen in the Maricopa County, Ariz., e u the chest. The bullet penetrat - q sheriff’s office and East Haven, r e ed Allen’s heart, aorta and lungs. u Conn., police department for q He died “almost instantly,” u ethnic profiling of Latinos. ( See b l A New Orleans Parish Coroner graphic, p. 304. ) e 1 h Frank Minyard said later. T Racial profiling is also at the / o Allen’s death, the second t heart of the nationwide con - o h fatal shooting of an African- P troversy over the Feb. 26 fatal American youth by New Or - P shooting of a black Florida A leans police within a week, Natalie Gomez holds a picture of her brother, 22-year- teenager by a white neighbor - remains under what Super - old Alan Gomez, who was killed last year by hood watch volunteer. ( See Albuquerque, N.M., police. Ms. Gomez participated in a intendent Ronal Serpas rally on June 14, 2011, protesting the police department’s sidebar, p. 314. ) Trayvon Mar - promises will be “a complete use of lethal force. The department’s police union was tin, 17, was shot as he was re - and thorough” investigation. found to have been giving officers involved in fatal turning from a convenience store Colclough, in his fifth year shootings $500 to help them recover from stress. to the house of his father’s girl - with the force, gave a vol - Critics have called the payments a friend in Sanford, an Orlando bounty system for killing suspects. untary statement to investi - suburb. George Zimmerman, gators a week after the shooting. His son, leader of the United New Orleans whose mother is Hispanic, claims he shot attorney, Claude Kelly, says an “hon - Front, declared as protesters massed the unarmed Martin in self-defense after est” investigation will show the shoot - outside police headquarters two days following the youth because of what he ing was justified. after the shooting. Helen Shorty, Allen’s regarded as suspicious behavior. The in - Allen’s family and leaders of the city’s grandmother, called for Colclough to cident has touched off nationwide de - African-American community, however, be booked for murder . 2 bate not only over racial profiling but have no doubt that the shooting was The shootings come as the long- also over Florida’s so-called Stand Your unwarranted. “There have been egre - troubled department is negotiating with Ground law, which allows someone to gious wrongs done to the black com - the U.S.