A broader pattern
The Justice Department says cops in Phoenix are doing it wrong.
The Phoenix Police Department routinely uses excessive force and discriminates against Black, Hispanic and Native American people, part of a broader pattern of unconstitutional policing in one of America’s largest cities, according to a Justice Department report released Thursday.
Will there be any such reports if Trump returns? Obviously not.
In a 126-page report, the Justice Department said a federal civil rights investigation found that police in Phoenix use unnecessarily dangerous force, making situations more volatile; fail to provide proper oversight when force is used; and enforce the law based on race. Investigators also found that the department violates the rights of people who are homeless, improperly arresting them and destroying their property.
While other jurisdictions have recently responded to similar investigations by pledging to cooperate with federal oversight, Phoenix officials had publicly questioned the Justice Department probe, raising the possibility that they could refuse to accept its findings. If so, that could lead to a legal battle in which the Justice Department goes to court to pursue an order forcing the local agency under federal supervision, opening a contentious new front in the public debate over police reform and accountability.
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The Justice Department report released Thursday noted that the Phoenix police shoot and kill people at one of the country’s highest rates. Phoenix police officers have fatally shot at least 119 people since the beginning of 2015, according to a Washington Post database tracking deadly shootings by police. This number outpaces fatal shootings by police in other cities with larger populations, including Chicago, New York and Houston.
In the report, federal investigators said they found that Phoenix police “use unreasonable force to rapidly dominate encounters, often within the first few moments of an encounter.” Officers shoot at people who present no threat or who are no longer a threat, the report says, sometimes using force against people who are already unconscious due to police gunfire. Police also use force rapidly, the report said, sometimes before even speaking to the person involved.
Nobody’s perfect.
The US system, if it can be called that, of policing is an example for the rest of the western world to pay attention to and then avoid. Poorly trained and heavily armed police with effective immunity – what a disaster. I’m not coming at this from a we do it better perspective either. NZ police are not routinely armed, but they do have access to firearms. In addition, while current police leadership is resisting calls by a majority of officers to permanently arm police – believing in policing by consent – this will eventually change as a generational matter. younger police are noticeably more gung ho and project the image of tattooed body builders with wrap around sunglasses. Other than the uniform pretty hard to distinguish from the gang members they supposedly protect us from. Our police training is also only 20 weeks, which is about par with the average in the US. We have less emphasis on tactical training currently, but again, a change in leadership and that can be changed at the stroke of a pen. I’d far rather see our police trained like many of the Scandinavian countries where trining is generally 2-3 years and where even though many police are armed, they don’t seem to have developed a reputation for shooting first and asking what’s going on second. Part of this seems to relate to many US police colleges emphasising to trainees how dangerous it is out there, and that they should be ready to defend themselves at a moments notice. Putting aside those who are inclined to aggression or racist attitudes, that means frightened cops are just more pre-disposed to whipping out a gun. As one of our police commissioners said – guns can fix situations, they can also make many situations go very bad very quickly when they don’t need to. There have been trials in the US that showed that officers trained in critical thinking and de-escalation not only shot markedly fewer people than their colleagues who received normal training; they were also injured at a markedly lower rate as well.
Still, IMHO, one of the best TV Cop shows ever, “Hill Street Blues” demonstrates some of what Rob writes about above.
There was a constant struggle between Frank’s policing by consent and Howard’s desire to deploy his weapons.
And the change from “Let’s be careful out there” to “Let’s go out there and do it to them before they do it to us” when Sgt. Phil Esterhaus was replaced by Sgt. Stan Jablonski at roll call.
The weather looks bleak, the sky is grey, I may just have to give this another whirl and see how it stands up.
Well there’s a key problem with US policing that no amount of training will fix: we’re drowning in an ocean of guns. They’ve got a reason to be trigger happy in addition to a a predisposition.
That is true. And doesn’t get discussed enough.