U.S. Justice Department Report on the Ferguson Police Department

More documents

Recommendations

Info

2. Focus Stop, Search, Ticketing and Arrest Practices on Community Protection FPD must fundamentally change the way it conducts stops and searches, issues citations and summonses, and makes arrests. FPD officers must be trained and required to abide by the law. In addition, FPD enforcement efforts should be reoriented so that officers are required to take enforcement action because it promotes public safety, not simply because they have legal authority to act. To do this, FPD should: a. Prohibit the use of ticketing and arrest quotas, whether formal or informal; b. Require that officers report in writing all stops, searches and arrests, including pedestrian stops, and that their reports articulate the legal authority for the law enforcement action and sufficient description of facts to support that authority; c. Require documented supervisory approval prior to: 1) Issuing any citation/summons that includes more than two charges; 2) Making an arrest on any of the following charges: i. Failure to Comply/Obey; ii. Resisting Arrest; iii. Disorderly Conduct/Disturbing the Peace; iv. Obstruction of Government Operations; 3) Arresting or ticketing an individual who sought police aid, or who is cooperating with police in an investigation; 4) Arresting on a municipal warrant or wanted; d. Revise Failure to Comply municipal code provision to bring within constitutional limits, and provide sufficient guidance so that all stops, citations, and arrests based on the provision comply with the Constitution; e. Train officers on proper use of Failure to Comply charge, including elements of the offense and appropriateness of the charge for interference with police activity that threatens public safety; f. Require that applicable legal standards are met before officers conduct pat-downs or vehicle searches. Prohibit searches based on consent for the foreseeable future; g. Develop system of correctable violation, or “fix-it” tickets, and require officers to issue fix-it tickets wherever possible and absent contrary supervisory instruction; h. Develop and implement policy and training regarding appropriate police response to activities protected by the First Amendment, including the right to observe, record, and protest police action; i. Provide initial and regularly recurring training on Fourth Amendment constraints on police action, as well as responsibility within FPD to constrain action beyond what Fourth Amendment requires in interest of public safety and community trust; j. Discontinue use of “wanteds” or “stop orders” and prohibit officers from conducting stops, searches, or arrests on the basis of “wanteds” or “stop orders” issued by other agencies. 3. Increase Tracking, Review, and Analysis of FPD Stop, Search, Ticketing and Arrest Practices At the first level of supervision and as an agency, FPD must review more stringently officers’ stop, search, ticketing, and arrest practices to ensure that officers are complying with the 91
Constitution and department policy, and to evaluate the impact of officer activity on police legitimacy and community trust. FPD should: a. Develop and implement a plan for broader collection of stop, search, ticketing, and arrest data that includes pedestrian stops, enhances vehicle stop data collection, and requires collection of data on all stop and post-stop activity, as well as location and demographic information; b. Require supervisors to review all officer activity and review all officer reports before the supervisor leaves shift; c. Develop and implement system for regular review of stop, search, ticketing, and arrest data at supervisory and agency level to detect problematic trends and ensure consistency with public safety and community policing goals; d. Analyze race and other disparities shown in stop, search, ticketing, and arrest practices to determine whether disparities can be reduced consistent with public safety goals. 4. Change Force Use, <strong>Report</strong>ing, Review, and Response to Encourage De-Escalation and the Use of the Minimal Force Necessary in a Situation FPD should reorient officers’ approach to using force by ensuring that they are trained and skilled in using tools and tactics to de-escalate situations, and incentivized to avoid using force wherever possible. FPD also should implement a system of force review that ensures that improper force is detected and responded to effectively, and that policy, training, tactics, and officer safety concerns are identified. FPD should: a. Train and require officers to use de-escalation techniques wherever possible both to avoid a situation escalating to where force becomes necessary, and to avoid unnecessary force even where it would be legally justified. Training should include tactics for slowing down a situation to increase available options; b. Require onsite supervisory approval before deploying any canine, absent documented exigent circumstances; require and train canine officers to take into account the nature and severity of the alleged crime when deciding whether to deploy a canine to bite; require and train canine officers to avoid sending a canine to apprehend by biting a concealed suspect when the objective facts do not suggest the suspect is armed and a lower level of force reasonably can be expected to secure the suspect; c. Place more stringent limits on use of ECWs, including limitations on multiple ECW cycles and detailed justification for using more than one cycle; d. Retrain officers in use of ECWs to ensure they view and use ECWs as a tool of necessity, not convenience. Training should be consistent with principles set out in the 2011 ECW Guidelines; e. Develop and implement use-of-force reporting that requires the officer using force to complete a narrative, separate from the offense report, describing the force used with particularity, and describing with specificity the circumstances that required the level of force used, including the reason for the initial stop or other enforcement action. Some levels of force should require all officers observing the use of force to complete a separate force narrative; f. Develop and implement supervisory review of force that requires the supervisor to conduct a complete review of each use of force, including gathering and considering 92
Page 1 and 2:
Investigation of the Ferguson Polic
Page 3 and 4:
5. Ferguson’s Lack of a Diverse P
Page 5 and 6:
Ferguson’s law enforcement practi
Page 7 and 8:
payment such as community service.
Page 9 and 10:
einforces the harm of discriminator
Page 11 and 12:
Because the overwhelming majority o
Page 13 and 14:
was budgeted. Nonetheless, for fisc
Page 15 and 16:
continue to be “productive” in
Page 17 and 18:
supervisors, the Patrol Captain exp
Page 19 and 20:
do so by state law, it collects no
Page 21 and 22:
Lieutenant: Bus Patron: Lieutenant:
Page 23 and 24:
esidence. Later that day, the two m
Page 25 and 26:
person for Failure to Comply. The o
Page 27 and 28:
from their field training officers.
Page 29 and 30:
Officers charged the two teenagers
Page 31 and 32:
causing the protesters to run. Vide
Page 33 and 34:
officer or witness trooper. The wom
Page 35 and 36:
canine officer, responded to the ho
Page 37 and 38:
his pant leg and, he said, almost c
Page 39 and 40:
case concerning use of force agains
Page 41 and 42:
stunned with an ECW in the classroo
Page 43 and 44: Order 499.00. They are to be used t
Page 45 and 46: B. Ferguson’s Municipal Court Pra
Page 47 and 48: Prosecuting Attorney does when an a
Page 49 and 50: a person has appeared in court but
Page 51 and 52: member in FPD custody, but were not
Page 53 and 54: court. Nonetheless, despite the ack
Page 55 and 56: of people arrive after 4:30 p.m. bu
Page 57 and 58: defendant, “everyone says [they]
Page 59 and 60: While issuing municipal warrants ag
Page 61 and 62: (noting that the state court had fa
Page 63 and 64: fact that the court will typically
Page 65 and 66: fine to avoid bond forfeiture, he o
Page 67 and 68: FPD’s vehicle stops are of Africa
Page 69 and 70: disparities is statistically signif
Page 71 and 72: . Disparate Impact of Court Practic
Page 73 and 74: unnecessarily disparately impact an
Page 75 and 76: We have discovered evidence of raci
Page 77 and 78: Mamaroneck, 462 F. Supp. 2d 520, 55
Page 79 and 80: d. Historical Background Until the
Page 81 and 82: Similarly, City officials have not
Page 83 and 84: verbal abuse by FPD officers during
Page 85 and 86: Comply) and had his vehicle towed a
Page 87 and 88: commander’s email regarding the i
Page 89 and 90: several subsequent complaints, incl
Page 91 and 92: Canfield Green when FPD was more co
Page 93: V. CHANGES NECESSARY TO REMEDY FERG
Page 97 and 98: 6. Change Response to Students to A
Page 99 and 100: c. Implement validated pre-employme
Page 101 and 102: 3) A person’s right to challenge
Page 103 and 104: defendants taking their case to tri
Page 105: 12. Close Cases that Remain on the
show all

U.S. Justice Department Report on the Ferguson Police Department

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?