Justice Dept. Criticizes Philadelphia Police, Finds Shootings by Officers Are Common...

stringer bell
stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited March 2015 in The Social Lounge
nytimes.com/2015/03/24/us/justice-dept-criticizing-philadelphia-police-finds-shootings-by-officers-are-common.html?_r=0
WASHINGTON — Police officers in Philadelphia have shot at people an average of nearly once a week over the past seven years, the Justice Department said Monday in a report that also criticized the Police Department for inadequate training and a shooting-review process that is too often kept secret.

The report comes as tensions linger over the death of Brandon Tate-Brown, 26, an unarmed Philadelphia man who was killed by the police in December.


The Justice Department review, which began in 2013, was unrelated to that shooting, but the report describes a department where shootings are common and where officers are not required to carry less lethal alternatives, such as stun guns. Officers were involved in 390 shootings from 2007 through 2014.

Fifty-nine unarmed people were shot by Philadelphia police officers since 2007, a figure that accounted for about 15 percent of shootings, the Justice Department said. National data on police shootings do not exist. “Therefore, we cannot say whether this number is high or low,” the Justice Department said
.

Police departments are not required to publish data on shootings involving their officers and there is no accepted standard for doing so, which makes it difficult to compare figures with departments in other cities.

But Philadelphia’s numbers are stark when contrasted with New York’s; that city publishes data on police shootings each year. New York’s population and police force are more than five times larger than Philadelphia, yet Philadelphia had dozens more police shootings during the period covered by the report, according to the closest comparable published data.

Last month, the Justice Department issued a scathing review of the Police Department in Ferguson, Mo., after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man. The investigation by federal prosecutors and F.B.I. agents found widespread unconstitutional police practices and demanded changes in Ferguson, a city that had been pushed to the forefront of the debate over police and race.

The Philadelphia report is very different, both in its tone and its findings. The Philadelphia police commissioner, Charles H. Ramsey, had requested the Justice Department investigation, which was not conducted by federal prosecutors, but rather by federal experts who specialize in community-oriented policing. And while the Ferguson report is likely to lead to a court order and independent oversight of the department, the Philadelphia report is essentially an advisory document.

In about half of the Philadelphia cases involving unarmed suspects, officers said they thought a suspect was reaching for a weapon. In other cases, suspects were unarmed but were fighting with the police.

The report does not allege racial discrimination or animus by the police in Philadelphia. Though African-Americans accounted for 80 percent of shooting victims, whites who were shot by the police were more likely than blacks to be unarmed, the Justice Department concluded. And in most cases, unarmed black suspects were shot by black officers.

The report comes at a tense time in Philadelphia. At a community meeting last week where the police were expected to discuss Mr. Tate-Brown’s shooting, residents angrily shouted at the commissioner and pointed in his face. Protesters tussled with police officers, and the meeting descended into lawlessness. Ten people were arrested.



As usual there is no accountability for pigs.. A report finds that the pigs are trigger happy yet no one is handle accountable for that...

Comments

  • Rozetta5tone
    Rozetta5tone Members Posts: 4,506 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • blackamerica
    blackamerica Members Posts: 2,897 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Justice department always coming out with these reports AFTER a cop gets away with murder. How about you put the racist cop in jail? These reports saying how these departments have racist tendencies is just common knowledge. When's the last time a ? cop went to jail for killing a black kid? Snmfh
  • stringer bell
    stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Justice department always coming out with these reports AFTER a cop gets away with murder. How about you put the racist cop in jail? These reports saying how these departments have racist tendencies is just common knowledge. When's the last time a ? cop went to jail for killing a black kid? Snmfh

    But.. But.. Black on Black crime.. And.. And.. Police are in fear...
  • leftcoastkev
    leftcoastkev Members Posts: 6,232 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Foh, we can't track the data.....it's too hard to track the data....they can track ur ass around the globe via DNA, ? recognition software at a football stadium, license plate readers a block away... but when it come to data that make them look bad "our hands are tied"
  • LUClEN
    LUClEN Members Posts: 20,559 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Foh, we can't track the data.....it's too hard to track the data....they can track ur ass around the globe via DNA, ? recognition software at a football stadium, license plate readers a block away... but when it come to data that make them look bad "our hands are tied"

    Police stations aren't submitting it
    It's rare for them to do that kind of thing

    Obviously they don't want to incriminate themselves
  • stringer bell
    stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
    philly.com/philly/news/20150324_Report__Poor_training_leads_to_high_police-involved_shootings.html
    Report: Poor training leads to high police-involved shootings

    A CITY FAMOUS for police brutality and corruption, where officers shoot about 49 people a year, the Philadelphia Police Department has a long way to go to reduce its use of deadly force and rebuild the community's broken trust, according to a federal Justice Department report issued yesterday.

    The department's office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, spent a year assessing Philly's use of force, identifying 48 issues and making 91 recommendations for reform. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey asked for the review in 2013 after a Philly.com report found police-involved shootings skyrocketing here, even as violent crimes and assaults against police dropped.

    "The department has much work to do in the months and years ahead. Our assessment uncovered policy, training and operational deficiencies, in addition to an undercurrent of significant strife between the community and the department," authors George Fachner and Steven Carter wrote in their 174-page report.

    "Distrust in the ability of the PPD to investigate itself pervades segments of the community," they continued. "Scandals of the past and present, high-profile OIS [officer-involved shooting]incidents and a lack of transparency in investigative outcomes help cement this distrust."

    The authors found that Philly officers don't get regular, consistent training on deadly force policies. They recommended annual training and additional reality-based scenario training to improve de-escalation, threat perception and decision-making skills.

    They also urged the department to issue stun-guns to all uniformed officers to reduce lethal encounters, rather than the limited few who complete "crisis intervention training" as now occurs.

    The department should create a unit dedicated to investigating all deadly force incidents and record, on audio and video, interviews with officers involved in shootings and witnesses, the report recommended.

    Further, all police shootings of unarmed suspects should be reviewed by an outside agency, the report urged. Fifteen percent of those shot by police since 2007 were unarmed. (Fifty-six were armed with guns, while the rest used vehicles as weapons against police or were armed with knives, BB guns or other objects.)

    "More transparency is needed for properly keeping the community informed," the authors noted, exhorting the department to post detailed, annual, public reports on police use of force.

    The department also must better cooperate with the Police Advisory Commission, a civilian-helmed oversight board whose director has complained he's had to file right-to-know requests for deadly force incidents.

    COPS officials will monitor Philly's progress on implementing their recommendations and issue two progress reports in the next year, COPS director Ronald Davis said.

    As officials shared report findings with journalists inside U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger's Center City office, a few protesters gathered outside, holding signs with such slogans as "No good cops in a racist system" and "Fight the oppressor! Ramsey & the FOP."

    They chanted at Ramsey when he departed, heckling him as a "jaywalker" as he crossed the street midblock to reach his car. He did not address them.


    But earlier, he told reporters that volunteering for outside scrutiny should show citizens that he is serious about reform. Philly is just the third police department to ask for the COPS review (Las Vegas and Spokane, Wash., are the others).

    "This is a start," Ramsey said. "The truth hurts but selective ignorance is fatal," he added, borrowing a favorite saying of Davis'.

    The report gives Philly's next mayor and police commissioner a good road map for reform, Mayor ? added.

    "Every day is another day to do better than we did yesterday," he said.

    Philly police have shot 394 people since 2007, according to police data. Excluding those shot in 2014 (because 2014 data is incomplete), the report found that 80 percent of those shot were black, and 98 percent were male. They ranged in age from 13 to 62, but averaged 20 years old.

    The report found that 540 officers fired their guns in 364 incidents through 2013:

    * Most (93 percent) were patrol cops, men (94 percent) and white (59 percent).

    * Sixty-eight officers were involved in more than one shooting; of those, 12 shot three people each, while another three shot four people each.

    * The 22nd and 25th Police Districts (both in North Philly) were the deadliest, with 55 and 41 police-involved shootings, respectively.

  •   Colin$mackabi$h
    Colin$mackabi$h Members Posts: 16,586 ✭✭✭✭✭
    All I see is another step towards anger.
  • D. Morgan
    D. Morgan Members Posts: 11,662 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ? the so called "Justice" Dept. when there is no actual JUSTICE in this country.

    If a person wants justice better dish that ? out yourself according to what you see fit.
  • D. Morgan
    D. Morgan Members Posts: 11,662 ✭✭✭✭✭
    D. Morgan wrote: »
    ? the so called "Justice" Dept. when there is no actual JUSTICE in this country.

    If a person wants justice better dish that ? out yourself according to what you see fit.

    ....and then go to jail for being a ? damn vigilante.

    Everybody don't get caught first off.

    Also you should ready accept that as a possiblity before you do anything illegal on any scale.