Police Oversight Measure Considered in Annapolis
BY DON RUSH
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Advocates
for police reform are urging the approval of a legislative package that would
broaden the scope of law enforcement accountability.
The Maryland Coalition for
Justice and Equality is hosting a news conference Thursday morning in Annapolis
for support of three bills that address investigations into police misconduct
and propose guidelines for the use of officer body cameras.
One measure would authorize the
state prosecutor to investigate the deaths of anyone who died either through
the actions or omissions of a police officer.
Another bill would alter
requirements under the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights for making a
complaint against an officer.
The measures are scheduled for
committee hearings Thursday afternoon.
Advocates,
police square off over brutality legislation
By Timothy B. Wheeler The
Baltimore Sun
Civil rights advocates, law
enforcement spar over police brutality bills.
Civil rights advocates and
families of alleged victims of police brutality urged state lawmakers Thursday
to improve law enforcement accountability, saying Maryland is not immune to
widespread concerns about the use of excessive force by officers.
"Enough is enough,"
said Marion Gray-Hopkins, whose 19-year-old son, Gary, was shot to death by a
Prince George's County police officer 15 years ago.
She joined rights advocates and
others at a news conference before a Senate hearing on several bills. One would
spell out when police wearing body cameras must turn them on. Another would
make it easier to file excessive force complaints against officers and speed up
internal investigations of such incidents.
"We're not here to pick on
cops, only bad cops," said Ryan Dennis, a spokesman for the Maryland
Coalition for Justice and Equality.
But law enforcement officials
turned out in force to oppose the bills, arguing that they go too far and would
be counterproductive.
A police union official warned
that changing the rules for internal investigations could worsen
police-community relations rather than improve them. And a spokesman for the
state's police chiefs said that the body camera standards under consideration
are so complicated they would discourage police departments from fitting their
officers with them.
While the deaths of unarmed
black men during confrontations with police in Missouri and New York have
sparked national debate, advocates say incidents in Maryland have fueled
similar mistrust of law enforcement in minority communities.
A six-month Baltimore Sun
investigation, for instance, found that Baltimore taxpayers had paid nearly $6
million since 2011 to settle 102 lawsuits alleging police brutality and other
misconduct. Officers had battered dozens of residents during questionable
arrests, the investigation revealed, resulting in broken bones, head trauma,
organ failure and even death.
Responding to community anger
over those revelations, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner
Anthony W. Batts have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to make a
comprehensive review of the Police Department.
The mayor and police
commissioner also have said they support body cameras as a way to rebuild
public trust, and other police departments are moving to adopt them as well.
Sen. Victor R. Ramirez, a
Prince George's County Democrat, said he believes there needs to be a statewide
"framework" for how the cameras are used. His bill would not require
police departments to use cameras. But in those that do, he said, officers need
to know when they should be filming, and when they should not.
"Ultimately, what we're
trying to do is bridge law enforcement and our citizens, build that
relationship," he said.
Civil rights advocates endorsed
the bill, particularly a provision barring the use of the cameras to film
protest demonstrations. They said the cameras should not be used to spy on
constitutionally protected activity.
But local officials,
prosecutors and police chiefs complained that Ramirez's bill would cause problems.
They urged lawmakers to leave it up to each department to write its own policy.
"This is micromanaging
when I can turn cameras on and when [to] turn it off," said Joseph
Cassilly, Harford County state's attorney. He called the bill confusing and
restrictive, and predicted it would complicate prosecution of criminal cases by
prompting litigation over whether the cameras had been properly used.
John Fitzgerald, speaking for
the Maryland association of police chiefs, suggested the prohibition on filming
protests was counterproductive. If violence flares, Fitzgerald, chief of the
Chevy Chase municipal force, said he wants cameras running so he could be sure
his officers act appropriately.
Another point of contention is
a provision requiring officers to get civilians' consent to film when they're
not in a public setting or dealing with emergency or criminal activity.
Maryland law generally requires the consent of anyone being recorded, and
Ramirez said that complicates how body cameras are used.
But opponents said the
legislation is too rigid. With officers facing a wide variety of situations in
the field, they argue that the standards could inappropriately restrict them in
deciding when to film and when not to.
"Officers would have to
choose between common sense and violating the law," Fitzgerald said.
Even some supporters of the
body-camera bill cautioned that it needed to be tweaked.
Nicholas Blendy, an aide to
Rawlings-Blake, pointed to estimates that body cameras could cost Baltimore
$5.5 million to $7.9 million a year. He urged lawmakers to take those costs
into consideration and not set standards that are too detailed.
Advocates and officials also
squared off over proposed changes to a Maryland law that grants police officers
certain rights in defending themselves against misconduct complaints.
David Rocah, of the American
Civil Liberties Union, called the state's "law enforcement officer's bill
of rights" one of the most protective of police in the country. He told
lawmakers it was hindering investigations of civilians' complaints and fueling
public mistrust.
The bill put in by Sen. Lisa
Gladden, a Baltimore city Democrat, would do away with a requirement that
citizens file an excessive-force complaint within 90 days of the incident. It
also would eliminate a provision barring questioning of a police officer
accused of misconduct for 10 days after an incident.
The 10-day rule, Rocah said,
"more than anything else drives the public perception that law enforcement
officers are playing by a special set of rules."
Sen. Bobby Zirkin, chairman of
the Judicial Proceedings Committee and a lawyer himself, pointed out that the
delay allows an accused police officer time to get a lawyer to advise him on
his rights.
And law enforcement officials
and organizations countered that the changes proposed by Gladden would tip the
system against police officers and even violate their constitutional rights.
Gene Ryan, president of the
Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3, asserted in written
testimony that the bill would in fact "create an even deeper divide
between law enforcement and the community it is sworn to defend."
In the case of Gray-Hopkins'
son, officials admitted no wrongdoing on the part of the officer or police
department. Officers involved in recent deaths in Ferguson, Mo., and New York
were cleared of wrongdoing.
A third accountability measure
sought by civil rights advocates, which would have authorized a special
prosecutor to investigate deaths at the hands of police, was withdrawn by the
sponsor.
Sen. C. Anthony Muse, the lead
Senate sponsor, said he pulled it so that the affected parties — including the
Fraternal Order of Police, police chiefs and state's attorneys — could hammer
out a deal with advocates before next year's session.
"I would rather see this
done as a team effort," said Muse, a Prince George's County Democrat.
"It makes a powerful statement to the community if we can do it that
way."
Muse said that if no agreement
is reached, he would still reintroduce the bill next year. He said the state
prosecutor had not expressed any reservations about the legislation.
Baltimore Sun reporter Michael
Dresser contributed to this article.
Yancey
calls for civilian board to investigate police misconduct
Yawu Miller | 2/25/2015, 10:59
a.m.
City Councilor Charles Yancey
filed legislation that would create an independent board to review complaints
of police misconduct. Banner Photo
83
City Councilor Charles Yancey
has filed legislation that would establish an independent civilian review board
with the power to investigate allegations of police misconduct and impose
sanctions against officers.
Yancey’s proposal, which has
not yet had a hearing in the Council, comes at a time of increased public
scrutiny of police practices in the wake of high-profile police killings of
unarmed civilians across the U.S.
“It’s important for elected
officials at all levels of government to understand that police accountability
is a serious issue,” Yancey said.
Yancey is proposing a board of
11 members appointed by community-based organizations. The board would have the
power to subpoena witnesses in its investigations.
That approach differs from the
current system, in which all investigations of police misconduct are handled by
the department’s own Internal Affairs Division. Civilians unsatisfied with an
IAD investigation can appeal their cases to Civilian Ombudsman Oversight Panel
(CO-OP), which reviews select IAD investigations.
Mayor Martin Walsh announced
last week his appointment of two new members to the three-member CO-OP panel.
Former Boston Health and Human Services Chief Larry Mayes and former Judge
Regina Quinlan will join New England Law associate professor Natashia Tidwell
on the board, which reviews cases that have been investigated by the police
department’s Internal Affairs Division, but does not conduct its own
investigations.
“The fact that the mayor made
the appointments shows he thinks police accountability is important,” said
Yancey.
Few cases reviewed
The CO-OP board has reviewed
just a small sliver of the hundreds of cases of police misconduct filed with
the Internal Affairs Division over the last few years. In 2012, the last year
for which CO-OP provides data on its website, civilians filed 324 complaints
against police, of which the board reviewed 31. While CO-OP does not have the
power to conduct its own investigations, it reviews IAD investigations and makes
a determination of whether the investigations were fair and thorough. Of the 31
cases it investigated in 2012, it flagged four as not fair or thorough.
Flagged cases are then referred
to the police commissioner for review.
Because the current system relies
on the police department’s own investigative arm, civilians have little chance
of receiving a fair hearing, argues attorney David Milton, who specializes in
cases of police misconduct.
“When we do help people go
through the complaint process with Internal Affairs, we make sure they lower
their expectations,” Milton said. “It’s a biased and totally ineffectual
process.”
And the CO-OP board does little
to improve the experience for complainants.
“They can play an important
function, in terms of giving some feedback to the police,” Milton said. “But
without subpoena power and the ability to conduct investigations and recommend
disciplinary action, the CO-OP board is not as effective as it could be.”
Rasaan Hall, deputy director of
the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, agrees.
“The absence of teeth — of the
ability to do anything beyond investigate whether or not the process was fair
and thorough — makes it meaningless,” he said. “They do a good job of providing
reports and statistics. But beyond that, there’s nothing that goes toward
police accountability.”
Hall said that for the CO-OP to
be more effective it would need investigative powers and enough staff to
conduct independent investigations.
“If there were really a
commitment to a deeper level of accountability, you’d need to budget for paid
staff,” he said.
Civilian oversight panels have
been in place in U.S. cities since the late 1960s, when African Americans
complained widely of police abuse. There are currently 200 civilian oversight
boards in U.S. cities including New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
But police unions routinely
object to civilian oversight. In January, off-duty police officers scuffled
with civilians during a meeting of the St. Louis, Missouri Board of Alderman to
discuss the establishment of a civilian review panel.
In the 13-member Boston City
Council, Yancey’s measure has support from just two colleagues — Tito Jackson
and Ayanna Pressley. The matter has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
Key
West police oversight board wants medical records, testimony in Taser case
By ANTHONY CAVE
The 2011 case of a man Tased by
Key West police officer Mark Siracuse was continued by Key West's Citizen
Review Board, which reviews police-related complaints, at its meeting Monday at
Old City Hall.
The board voted to reach out to
two paramedics listed in the Care/American medical report for Matthew Murphy, a
West Virginia man who's still at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami unable to
walk or speak nearly four years after he was Tased.
"There are two stones that
have not been turned over," CRB Vice Chairman Tom Milone said, referring
to the paramedics.
According to initial police
reports, Murphy, 27, "had his shirt off and had taken an aggressive
stance" toward another man, Jason Moffet, on April 16, 2011, at 3:40 a.m.
on Duval Street. Siracuse wrote in the report that Moffet and Murphy were
arguing over someone using the N word.
After Murphy allegedly punched
Moffet in the face, Siracuse Tased Murphy, "striking him with both
probes."
Murphy fell and knocked his
head on the pavement. He was taken to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami "due to
a brain bleed," Siracuse wrote.
"You could hear his head
fall, like hitting the concrete and stuff," Murphy's fiancee, Marie Annulysse,
said in a sworn statement last August to CRB attorney Robert Cintron.
Moreover, Annulysse, in a
complaint form submitted last July to the CRB, said Siracuse did not warn
Murphy he could be Tased before Tasing him.
"He lied in his
report," Annulysse said. "Using the Taser was excessive because he
could have just ordered Matthew and the man to sit down."
Annulysse, who is
Haitian-American, told Cintron that an older couple, Moffet and his girlfriend
Beverly Anderson, allegedly made racial slurs including [N-word] lover"
and "that's how you make monkey babies."
She also said she did not see
Murphy hit Moffet, contrary to Siracuse's report.
"If Matt was dating a
white girl, this wouldn't have happened," Annulysse wrote.
A July 2014 Monroe County State
Attorney's Office investigative report found "no cause for further
action" relating to the Murphy case, but Chief Investigator Christopher
Weber wrote that the question of whether Key West police acted outside the
scope of their authority when using the Taser "should be addressed."
In that same report, Siracuse
told Weber that there was no mention of visible head trauma by anyone on scene,
including medical personnel.
Besides Monday's CRB vote
looking to question the two paramedics, CRB Executive Director Larry Beaver
said Cintron has subpoenaed Lower Keys Medical Center for Murphy's medical
records. LKMC has not responded as yet.
"He was there for a period
of time before he was air-flighted out," Beaver said.
