{"id":19317,"date":"2017-01-13T07:28:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T07:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=19317"},"modified":"2017-01-13T07:28:34","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T07:28:34","slug":"baltimore-agrees-broad-change-troubled-police-dept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/baltimore-agrees-broad-change-troubled-police-dept.html","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore Agrees to Broad Change for Troubled Police Dept."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Baltimore Agrees to Broad Change for Troubled Police Dept.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Baltimore Agrees to Broad Change for Troubled Police Dept.:-<\/strong> Nearly two years after the death of a black man in police custody led to violent riots here, the Justice Department and city leaders announced on Thursday a long-sought agreement to impose greater oversight and training on a police force found to have routinely harassed minorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Negotiators have been rushing for weeks to complete the deal before the Jan. 20 inauguration of Donald J. Trump and the expected confirmation of his attorney general pick, Senator Jeff Sessions. Both men are seen as hostile to police oversight agreements like the one put in place on Thursday, with Mr. Trump denouncing what he called the \u201cwar on police\u201d during his presidential campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Justice Department negotiators are moving quickly to complete a second investigation in Chicago, which has also been wracked by violence and tension between the police and residents. The findings of that investigation could come as early as Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Announcing the Baltimore deal at City Hall, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said she was confident that the reforms mandated by the deal would take hold even if the Trump administration were to take steps to try to undo it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama Races to Overhaul Police in Baltimore and Chicago Before Trump Era JAN. 10, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

Findings of Police Bias in Baltimore Validate What Many Have Long Felt AUG. 10, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

Some Women Won\u2019t \u2018Ever Again\u2019 Report a Rape in Baltimore AUG. 11, 2016<\/span>
\n \u201cThis agreement is binding and it will live on,\u201d said Ms. Lynch, flanked by Mayor Catherine Pugh, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, Vanita Gupta, the head of the civil rights division at the Justice Department, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Davis said the pact provides \u201ca path forward\u201d that he said will benefit both his officers and the city\u2019s residents and that it should serve as a model for thousands of other police departments in tackling tensions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baltimore came under Justice Department scrutiny after an African-American man, Freddie Gray, 25, died of a spinal cord injury he received while in police custody in 2015 as he was being transported in a department van.<\/span><\/p>\n

The death led to widespread protests \u2014 Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, called in the National Guard to quell riots \u2014 and appeals for federal intervention. In the ensuing political fallout, the Democratic mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, dismissed the police chief and six officers were charged in Mr. Gray\u2019s death; none were convicted. The episode roiled racial tensions nationwide amid a string of other deaths of black men in police confrontations nationwide, from Ferguson, Mo., to Staten Island.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Justice Department filed a 227-page consent decree in federal court on Thursday just minutes before announcing the deal. A judge must approve it before the city and the Police Department begin putting in place more than a dozen changes, including improved training and technology, community oversight, and greater transparency in dealings between the police and the public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once that is done, the crucial first step will almost surely fall to the Trump administration: working with the city to recommend an outside, independent monitor to determine whether Baltimore is adequately taking steps to address what a blistering Justice Department report in August found was systemic racial bias in its policing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Pugh, a Democrat who has been in office 33 days, recounted hectic, 1:30 a.m. phone calls with negotiators in the weeks leading up to the agreement. She called the results \u201ca great day\u201d for Baltimore.<\/span><\/p>\n

She made clear what she considered the most important element: \u201ctraining, training, training, training.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement requires officers to go through 80 hours of training in practices like community policing and proper tactics for stops, searches and arrests. Another measure will require improved safety technology and video cameras inside police vans like the one used to transport Mr. Gray when he died.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Justice Department\u2019s report on city policing last year found that officers routinely stopped large numbers of people in poor, black neighborhoods for dubious reasons, and arrested residents merely for speaking out in ways police officers deemed disrespectful.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Baltimore, a city that is 63 percent black, the report found that 91 percent of those arrested on discretionary offenses like \u201cfailure to obey\u201d or \u201ctrespassing\u201d were African-American. Blacks made up 60 percent of Baltimore\u2019s drivers but accounted for 82 percent of traffic stops. Of the 410 pedestrians who were stopped at least 10 times in the five and a half years of data reviewed, 95 percent were black.<\/span><\/p>\n

The findings also painted a picture of a police culture deeply dismissive of sexual assault victims and hostile toward prostitutes and transgender people.<\/span><\/p>\n

The decree\u2019s requirements are intended to prohibit unlawful stops and arrests, and to prevent discriminatory policing and excessive force.<\/span><\/p>\n

Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, called the agreement \u201ca chance to re-establish trust\u201d between residents and the police after a painful few years.<\/span><\/p>\n

DeRay Mckesson, a well-known voice in the Black Lives Matter movement who lives in Baltimore, said he was impressed by the decree\u2019s wide range.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the first consent decree that I have seen that addresses the Police Department\u2019s internal affairs division,\u201d Mr. Mckesson said by text message, \u201cand goes further to ensure that officers are not targeting poor citizens or citizens in historically \u2018high-crime\u2019 areas and addresses the response to citizens in crisis or with mental health challenges.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Provisions of the decree prohibit the police from stopping people based solely on where they are, or how they respond to the presence of a police officer. The Supreme Court has ruled that officers can stop a person who flees from them in high-crime neighborhoods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis starts to push back on that line and says, \u2018Look, we\u2019re really reinforcing that people have a right to avoid contact with the police and the place they live shouldn\u2019t be an important factor in how much Fourth Amendment protection they get,\u2019\u201d said David Jaros, an associate professor of law at the University of Baltimore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time,\u201d Mr. Jaros added, \u201cit\u2019s ambiguous as to what its reach is,\u201d and whether it limits police actions further than existing law does.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tessa Hill-Aston, the president of Baltimore\u2019s branch of the N.A.A.C.P., said she was heartened to see that the Police Department had already implemented reforms \u2014 like testing body cameras and changing aspects of prisoner transport \u2014 and hoped the consent decree would bring more.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Tawanda Jones, the sister of Tyrone West, who died in 2013 after a struggle with the police, said the rush to finish the deal and the coming handover of power in Washington had eroded her faith that the decree would bring about meaningful change in Baltimore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does a piece of paper mean? It means nothing,\u201d Ms. Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a training issue; it\u2019s a system that is broke. It\u2019s a system that doesn\u2019t hold people accountable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/01\/12\/us\/baltimore-police-consent-decree.html<\/span><\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t