Share and speak up for justice, law & order…
(Courageous Leadership): For three decades, local law enforcement has been investigated by the Department of Justice for civil rights investigations. These investigations typically involve the DOJ announcing an investigation,. the agency cooperating, and ultimately the DOJ announces their findings in a Summary Report. In most cases, a consent decree is imposed on the agency as the reform tool to fix the agency.
The practice likely started with good intentions but with most good intentions, something went horribly wrong through the years.
Court appointed consent decree monitors and their teams of retired police executives and lawyers made millions, and over the lifetime of the decree (10-20+ years), taxpayers spent hundreds of millions while the violence in their city increased dramatically, staffing shortages plagued departments and the metrics that the DOJ supposedly was there to fix got worse.
None of this has been disputed and I’ve written about this more than I would like but the brutality of this oversight simply cannot be ignored.
Foundation Crumbling
Anyone with some critical thinking skills knew something was wrong years ago and in recent years, a few law enforcement leaders began speaking about it. After agreeing to a consent decree, the City of Louisville was given access to the summary report by the DOJ and immediately found inaccuracies, saying that they could not find any evidence supporting the allegations. Likewise, Springfield (MA) issued a rebuttal after finding “many errors and discrepancies” in the report given to them.
None of this stopped the damage in those cities but I wonder what the DOJ would say about any “inaccuracies” in your police report?
Phoenix Rising
Either the Phoenix Police Department had suspicion based on Louisville and others or they believe in actual leadership that values facts over opinion, but they did something that no other city has done. Rather than simply agree to let the DOJ run their department for a few decades, they asked for the evidence of wrongdoing. The DOJ refused to give the city anything and demanded that they simply agree to a consent decree.
When the city council continued to ask for what anyone with a brain would ask for, the DOJ released the summary report to the public and it was ugly. In citing over 130 examples, the DOJ said that the Phoenix Police Department had displayed a pattern or practice of excessive force, unlawful detention of homeless people, discrimination, and violating the rights of people engaged in protected speech.
Like the summary reports in the past, it made the agency look like something out of a horror movie but, like the previous reports, it contained vague details, presuppositions, and simple opinions without supporting evidence.
To give the DOJ some credit, that mirrored their previous reports and that was all it took for other police leaders to simply go along with the charade.
Next Level Transparency
What Phoenix did next was what every agency should do but they were the first and it likely changed the game when it comes to how the DOJ investigates agencies. Phoenix identified each of the incidents mentioned by the DOJ, which is a huge task considering the vagueness of the report. Once identified, the city placed all of the documents and video on a public website so the community could see the details of each case discussed by the DOJ.
Shocking Analysis
This was the first time that anyone could look under the hood of a DOJ Investigation into agencies and I did just that. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find but what I found was shocking.
In looking at the 36 incidents cited but the DOJ to prove a pattern or practice in excessive force, I found that all 36 incidents were inaccurate. In fact, sometimes the description by the DOJ was so misrepresented by the video I watched, I had to double check to make sure I was on the right case.
In one incident, the DOJ said that a man did not threaten officers and simply had his hands to his side as they spoke to him. The video showed that for 15 minutes, the man would not remove his hands from his pockets and never complied with the officers. The man was shot when he took a knife out, raised it up, and aggressively came toward officers.
In another incident, the DOJ said that police used excessive force on a man “experiencing a behavioral health crisis” that did not pose a threat to officers. But the DOJ didn’t mention that the man had attempted to kidnap a woman, dragging her several feet towards his car and then resisted and fought officers upon their arrival.
In another incident, the DOJ claimed that “PhxPD Uses Unreasonable Force Immediately, Without Giving People Warning or an Opportunity to Comply, saying that “officers grabbed a man and slammed him to the ground seconds after confronting him.” oddly, the DOJ didn’t mention that the officer observed the suspect confronting a citizen in an aggressive manner and as the officer attempted to handcuff the suspect, the suspect pulled away from the officer and a strugglesensued. It took two officers to handcuff the suspect, who continued to refuse lawful commands and submit to lawful arrest.
Every single example displayed a similar pattern and frankly, I came away from the analysis thinking that Phoenix PD was one great agency. I saw officers waiting as long as they could, if not too long to use force. I saw officers give warnings when often times, that placed them at greater risks and, as I describe in the above video, I saw some real hero stuff.
I saw all of this while looking at incidents the DOJ said made Phoenix PD one of the most brutal and racist agencies in the country.
It kind of messed with my head and it will mess with yours. You can read the full report and analysis here.
Look Back To Move Forward
It’s obvious that something is clearly wrong with how the DOJ evaluates law enforcement agencies and there are likely DOJ employees that had no clue this was happening. It’s hard to understand, other than an extreme bias against law enforcement, how this could occur but it can’t continue.
The damage this has done to communities is immeasurable with peer reviewed research detailing the additional murders that occur in each city the DOJ touches. The DOJ certainly needs to get their house in order but none of this has to happen.
Ultimately, it’s the leaders at the local level that have permitted this. The 10th Amendment prohibits federal control of a local city or organization and the only reason this is happening is because those cities have agreed to it and until now, they have agreed to it without even vetting the evidence against them.
We deserve constitutional and professional policing in our cities and our local politicians and police leaders must take ownership of that rather than permitting the federal government to control and dismantle law and order.
This is a tale of weak leadership rather than a misguided attempt by the DOJ to reform others.
It’s time to lead!
Dr. Travis Yates retired as a commander with a large municipal police department after 30 years of service. He is the author of “The Courageous Police Leader: A Survival Guide for Combating Cowards, Chaos & Lies.” His risk management and leadership seminars have been taught to thousands of professionals across the world. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy with a Doctorate Degree in Strategic Leadership and the CEO of the Courageous Police Leadership Alliance.
Share and speak up for justice, law & order…
Continue Reading
Source: www.lawofficer.com