The shooting in Ferguson, Mo. underscores the need for the police department there as well as many other police forces in the nation to enact long-lasting change to ensure that no one’s civil rights are violated while fighting crime.
At press time, a St. Louis County grand jury handed down a decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Officer
Fortunately, the Justice Department is also investigating. The Justice Department’s civil rights inquiry is focusing on use-of-force, stops and searches and possible patterns of discrimination in the ways that officers in the predominantly White department interact with the majority-Black residents of the community.
A broader federal civil rights review is needed in Ferguson as well other cities to refashion police departments and bring long-lasting change.
In similar cases, broad federal investigations of police departments have dictated changes in how officers carry out the most fundamental of tasks, from searching suspects to making traffic stops.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been right to make the overhaul of troubled police departments among civil-rights priorities. In the past five years, the Justice Department has investigated some 20 police departments for problems that include treatment of the mentally ill, high numbers of officer-involved shootings and patterns of excessive force and racial bias. Police departments in Detroit, Seattle and New Orleans are among those that have committed to reforms.
The Justice Department announced on Sept. 4 a broad investigation into the Ferguson police force. Holder has pointed to a “deep mistrust” by residents and a lack of racial diversity among the Ferguson officers. He has received unwarranted criticism for calling for “wholesale change” at the department.
Holder’s remarks should not be viewed as controversial but as stating uncomfortable but necessary facts about Ferguson and many other police departments throughout the nation.
The Missouri attorney general’s office released a report that found that Ferguson police stopped and arrested African-American drivers nearly twice as often as white motorists but were less likely to find contraband among the Black drivers.
Similar findings have been made in New Orleans, Portland, Ore. and other police departments throughout the nation.
Mayors and police chiefs should be proactive in reforms and not wait for a police-involved shooting to examine the practices, policies and training of its police department.
Unfortunately, when there is a highly publicized police-involved shooting the public too often becomes preoccupied with individual prosecutions without recognizing the importance of bringing about long-term lasting change.
While it is important to hold an individual officer accountable for using excessive force there is also the need to address systemic issues and the culture of the police department.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
