WHERE YOU CAN'T TELL
DISARM DEMILITARIZE DEFUND DISBAND
THE WHITE ANGLO-SAXON MALE POLICE FORCE
DC police union moves to block mandatory release of body cam footage
NOT JUST THE UNION; MANAGEMENT,
AND THEIR POLITICAL HANDLERS TOO
By Reuters August 10, 2020
Enlarge Image
A Washington DC Metropolitan Police officer walks past an umbrella reading: "Defund Police" on the steps of a city government building.REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo
WASHINGTON — The Washington, D.C., police union said on Monday it asked a court to block the mandatory release of body camera footage and names of police officers involved in shootings.
The federal district passed a police reform law in July after weeks of protests in the nation’s capital and across the globe against systemic racism and police brutality, sparked by the killing of African-American man George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Floyd’s death, as well as other high-profile incidents of police brutality, led three dozen states to introduce initiatives to change or study policing, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Washington’s emergency legislation requires the Metropolitan Police Department to release the names of officers and body camera footage within five days of an officer-involved shooting or the use of serious force, among other measures.
Records of previous incidents, dating back to the beginning of the body-camera program in October 2014, were to be released by Aug. 15. The police union argued in its court filing, made on Aug. 7, that releasing those records could harm officers’ reputations.
“The release of the body-camera footage and names of officers will unjustly malign and permanently tarnish the reputation and good name of any officer that is later cleared of misconduct concerning the use of force,” the union said in a statement.
Nationwide data on police discipline is limited. A Reuters investigation found that many police union contracts call for disciplinary records to be kept private or erased and make it difficult for citizens to file complaints.
Experts have said body-worn cameras or bystander footage can increase the likelihood of attention to or discipline for police misconduct.
On July 31, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser released footage related to killings in three officer-involved deaths.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The district’s attorney general’s office declined to comment.
Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, said the organization agreed with the union that there was a right to privacy, but said it did not apply to officer-involved shootings. He noted that some of the issues the union brought up with the law are already addressed with certain checks.
“We don’t think that the identity of a law enforcement officer who’s engaged in official conduct is a matter of sensitive personal information at all,” Spitzer said.
The union’s latest move comes on the heels of a separate lawsuit it filed, which argued that the portion of the reform law that stripped it of the right to negotiate with management over the discipline of members was unconstitutional.
5h ago
Seattle Police Chief Resigns After City Council Slashes Funding
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best will leave the city’s police department, Mayor Jenny Durkan said, hours after the Seattle City Council voted to shrink its police force by 100 officers, trim the department’s budget and lower the salary of the chief.
Best “concluded that the best way to serve the city and help the department was a change in leadership, in the hope that would change the dynamics to move forward with the City Council,” Durkan said in a statement. A news conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time Tuesday, local TV station KIRO-7 reported. Deputy Chief Adrian Diaz will step into the vacant position atop Seattle’s police force.
The council voted earlier Monday to shrink the police department through layoffs and attrition and cut about $3 million from this year’s roughly $400 million budget. Additionally, Chief Best would have seen her salary reduced by $10,000 to $275,000, less than an earlier proposal to slash her pay by $100,000. The cuts came as part of a broader budget revamp due to shortfalls caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Seattle’s move marks the latest step by a local government to reduce funding for police in the wake of the nationwide protests sparked by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Large cities like New York and Los Angeles have reallocated money from their police forces to other programs. City councils in Washington D.C. and Oakland, California have also cut police funding.
Mayor Durkan and Best, the city’s first Black woman police chief, had cautioned against the reductions, arguing that they would jeopardize public safety in the city and reduce the diversity of the force by cutting the youngest, and most diverse, members.
Seattle’s cuts may not end here. Calls to defund are likely to continue as the city prepares its budget for the next fiscal year in the fall. Council member Kshama Sawant said she wants to go even further.
“Our fight to defund SPD in the coming months won’t get easier -- it will only be more challenging,” Sawant said in a statement released after a preliminary vote. “But my Council office, and my organization, Socialist Alternative, look forward to continuing to organize with and work alongside the courageous community organizers.”
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Top Female Chief Quits, Accusing N.Y.P.D.
of Widespread Gender Bias
Lori Pollock says in a lawsuit that the Police Department systematically denies women a chance to compete for top jobs.
Chief Lori Pollock says in a lawsuit she hoped to become the first female chief of detectives but was demoted instead. Credit...Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times
Aug. 11, 2020,
Shortly after Dermot F. Shea was appointed New York City’s police commissioner, he summoned one of the department’s highest-ranking women to his office and told her there would be some changes.
The woman, Chief Lori Pollock, was in charge of the department’s data-driven, crime-fighting strategy and had asked to be considered to become the next chief of detectives. It was a coveted promotion that two of her predecessors had received, including Mr. Shea.
PAYWALL
No comments:
Post a Comment