BALTIMORE
(AP) -- Baltimore's mayor was emphatic last week: She did not want
federal oversight of her police department.
"Nobody
wants the Department of Justice to come in here and take over our
city," Stephanie Rawlings-Blake declared as the National Guard enforced a
10 p.m. curfew.
But it was hard to find any
opposition Wednesday after she softened her tone and asked the U.S.
Justice Department to launch a broad civil rights investigation that
could eventually force the city to make changes under the oversight of
an outside monitor.
The Democratic mayor now
says she'll accept outside intervention to rebuild public trust in a
city torn by riots over the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who
suffered a fatal spinal injury in police custody.
"I
am determined not to allow a small handful of bad actors to tarnish the
reputation of the overwhelming majority of police officers who are
acting with honor and distinction," she wrote in a letter to the new
U.S. attorney general, Loretta Lynch.
The
mayor's announcement came the day after her closed-door meeting at City
Hall with Lynch, who pledged to improve the police department and told
faith and community leaders that "we're here to hold your hands and
provide support."
Lynch has received the mayor's request and is considering it, Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said Wednesday.
"I think that's probably a step in the right direction," Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said.
The city's police union and City Council president also welcomed the development.
A
key figure who didn't immediately respond was Police Commissioner
Anthony Batts, brought in from Oakland, California, by the mayor 2 1/2
years ago to reform the department.
The
mayor's request could put Batts' leadership under a microscope. A police
spokesman had no immediate response to requests for the commissioner's
reaction. An email and a text message were not immediately returned.
Baltimore
suffered days of unrest after Gray died April 19 after a week in a coma
following his arrest. Protesters threw bottles and bricks at police the
night of his funeral on April 27, injuring nearly 100 officers. More
than 200 people were arrested as cars and businesses burned.
Baltimore
has already been participating in a voluntary Justice Department
review, requested by Rawlings-Blake and Batts last fall. It would enable
police to implement reforms without a court order or independent
monitor.
But City Council President Jack Young said he's been warning since October that police won't change unless they're forced to.
"The
police commissioner could have said, `Well, now, I don't want to do
that,' and he didn't have to do it," Young said. "In my opinion, it was a
toothless tiger."
The Justice Department also
is investigating whether Gray's civil rights were violated, a much
narrower review than what Rawlings-Blake sought Wednesday.
Meanwhile,
six officers face state charges ranging from assault to second-degree
murder in Gray's death. At least two of them have filed motions
challenging the prosecutor's assertion that Gray was arrested illegally.
The
investigation the mayor now wants is a wide-ranging civil-rights probe,
examining how police use force, and search and arrest suspects. A
similar investigation followed the shooting of an unarmed, 18-year-old
black man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The
department ultimately concluded that Ferguson's police and courts
engaged in patterns of racial profiling, bigotry and profit-driven law
enforcement, and directed local authorities to make changes. Local
authorities still insist they did nothing wrong.
At
least 20 police departments have been investigated this way for a
variety of suspected systemic misconduct in the past five years, more
than twice the number of cases opened in the previous five years, the
Justice Department said when it opened the Ferguson inquiry.
Baltimore
police union president Gene Ryan said the union also has "issues with
many of the current policies and procedures of the department," and
pledged to cooperate with any investigation that could lead to
improvement in the department and officers' morale.
City Council Member Brandon Scott also welcomed the federal involvement.
"Like
they have in most places, they're going to find some things we're doing
well, they're going to find some things we're doing not so well, and
they're going to have to be stern and hard on our city to correct
those," Scott said.
Stephen Rushin, a visiting
assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois who is working
on a book about police reform, said Rawlings-Blake's announcement shows
she's serious about fixing the department.
He said mayors don't
typically request civil-rights investigations, but it can be smart to
embrace them.
"It's to everyone's benefit if
it comes up as a collaborative, unified effort to make reform," Rushin
said. "If the city feels this is going to happen either way, it's to
their advantage to support it."
The Rev. C.D.
Witherspoon, who leads the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in
Baltimore, said he's been asking for years for the Justice Department to
run the city's police force from Washington.
"If
this is just a probe and bring forth recommendations, as they have done
in the past, that won't be helpful.
If they find things that are
potentially problematic, I wonder if they will be willing to put the
department under receivership and take the reins," Witherspoon said.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said it's up to Lynch to decide what to do next.
"She
has a very good understanding of the way that those law enforcement and
prosecutorial enterprises should conduct themselves," Earnest said.
