|
| FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2014 file-pool photo, Attorney General Eric Holder participates in closed door meeting with students at St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley in Ferguson, Mo. As local authorities in Missouri near the end of their investigation into the Ferguson shooting, a separate, ongoing federal civil rights review of the entire police department holds the greater potential to refashion the agency and spur long-lasting change, experts say. The Justice Department, which is investigating the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown along with a county grand jury, is more than two months into its probe of the Ferguson department’s practices. The civil rights inquiry, relying on data and interviews, is searching for any pattern of racial bias in how officers in the predominantly white department interact with the majority-black community. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- As local authorities in Missouri near the end of their
investigation in the Ferguson shooting, a broader federal civil rights
review could hold a greater potential to refashion the police department
and bring long-lasting change.
While a St.
Louis County grand jury investigates the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old
Michael Brown, the Justice Department is investigating, too. More than
two months into its probe of the Ferguson department's practices, the
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
community.
Results are likely months away and
may do little quickly to mollify the community. But whether or not
officer Darren Wilson ends up facing state or federal criminal
prosecution, the civil rights investigation will continue.
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.
"If
the end goal of this is to ensure that no one's civil rights get
violated, that everyone is treated decently and their constitutional
rights are protected, the best thing that can come out of this is an
overall look at the department," said David Weinstein, a former federal
civil rights prosecutor in Miami.
Outgoing
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has made the overhaul of troubled
police departments among his 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.
A
county grand jury is expected to announce any day whether it will
indict Wilson, and federal authorities also are investigating the
shooting for potential civil rights violations. Concerned about
reactions if Wilson is not indicted, police are bracing for protests,
and Missouri's governor has activated the state National Guard.
Separately,
the Justice Department on Sept. 4 announced a broad investigation into
the police force, with Holder pointing to a "deep mistrust" by residents
and a lack of racial diversity among the Ferguson officers.
More
recently, he's described a need for "wholesale change" at the
department.
A report last year by the Missouri
attorney general's office found that Ferguson police stopped and
arrested black drivers nearly twice as often as white motorists but were
less likely to find contraband among the black drivers.
"From
what we know, it seems likely that they're going to find some
problems," said William Yeomans, an American University law fellow who
spent more than two decades in the Justice Department's Civil Rights
Division. He said the public too often becomes preoccupied with
individual prosecutions without recognizing the importance of "bringing
about long-term lasting change."
The civil
rights investigations often, though not always, end with the Justice
Department and a local police force entering into a court-enforceable
agreement that mandates changes.
Recent
examples include Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the police department
resolved a federal investigation by agreeing to reforms that include new
training and protocols for investigating officer shootings, and
Portland, Oregon, where an agreement approved by a judge in August
required changes in the way the police deal with the mentally ill.
Still,
federal investigations into police departments can take years and it's
not easy to measure their lasting results, especially since some of the
agreements are relatively new.
Ursula Price,
executive director of community relations for the New Orleans
Independent Police Monitor, a civilian oversight agency, said the city
police department is "not there yet" despite a sweeping reform plan
approved last year that required changes in the use of force, crisis
intervention, training, interrogations and stops, searches and arrests.
She
said federal intervention alone isn't enough, noting that Justice
Department lawyers don't go to every police-involved shooting, attend
every disciplinary hearing or live permanently in the community. But she
said it was a positive step that provides oversight and promotes
comprehensive change.
Community advocates in
New Orleans have years of experience responding to police-involved
shootings, including a string of such cases in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina that brought renewed scrutiny to the department. Price
said experience has taught her that changing a department's culture is
as important as individual accountability.
"I can name 25 Michael Browns," she said. "We've been through this over and over again, so our perspective has deepened."
Despite
criminal convictions arising from officer misconduct, "we were still
having the same difficult and dysfunctional relationships with the
police we've always had, so it started becoming clear that sending
individuals to jail isn't the way to resolve this."
"The
lesson we've learned here in New Orleans is, yes, we need to hold
individuals accountable but we also need to address systemic issues."
