POLICE ABUSE

   Police abuse is a serious problem and escapes every incident of extinction.  This is a national problem and there is no police department that has perfect conduct.  Police officers should have lots of self-control because they have to put up with all sorts of behavior.  This writer thinks that people will rely on officers of the law more readily if they feel more comfortable around them.  Police abuse, or brutality, has a long history, ever since the first police station came about.  The situation is not hopeless, however, and some of the abuse has been reduced and progress has been made through reforms.

    The bad news is that police abuse is a serious problem.  It has a long history and seems to be unstoppable.  The problem is everywhere.  There is no police department that is completely free of misconduct.  Most cases of brutality are reported.  I think that the officers that commit the crimes should be prosecuted.  Although, most cases that are reported, the United States Department of Justice has not been aggressive in prosecuting these people.  The situation is not hopeless.  Progress has happened in this field, some reforms have worked, and some types of abuse have been reduced.  Police brutality does make a good cop a bad cop. 

LITERATURE REVIEW

            As previously stated, police brutality is a very serious problem.  If you have encountered police brutality, according to Revis (1998), here is what you should do:

1.      Always contact the appropriate party within the department or party who handles complaints. (for example, Internal Affairs Department)

2.      Continue with a follow up letter to let them know that you are serious.

3.      A letter to the District Attorneys Office.

4.      Letters to:  City Council Members and Mayor for Police Departments and Municipalities, County Board of Supervision for Sheriffs Department.

5.      A complaint to the County Grand Jury.

6.      A letter to your State Attorney Generals Office.

7.      A letter to the FBI Civil Rights, Public Corruption, etc., divisions.

8.      Local Media- they make their living off stories.  If you can provide a succinct, clearly written story (usually under four hundred words), they make publish it, or at least set someone to look further into it.

9.      Make fliers and hand them out at places where foot traffic is frequent. (For example lunch hour hot spots)

10.  Take out newspaper advertisements stating the problem.

11.  Get the churches involved- it affects the safety and well being of the community. 

These steps should get you on the right track.

            Police brutality goes behind closed doors also.  Studies have shown that forty percent of police families have gone through domestic violence.  The main reason why police family violence is rarely reported is because the police will side with their colleagues.  Even when police domestic violence is reported, the practice in most police agencies is to handle these cases internally instead of referring them for prosecution. (Revis 1998)   A 1994 nationwide survey conducted by the Arlington, Texas police department and the Southwestern Law Enforcement Institute of the Southwest Legal Foundation found that one hundred and twenty three officers who are repeat domestic violence offenders. (Revis 1998)  It is very difficult for victims to win domestic violence cases against police officers.  One police department that does have a policy is the Houston Police Department.

Houston’s Police Department’s Deadly Force Policy

            Policy- The Houston Police Department places its highest value on the life and safety of its officers and the public.  The department’s policies, rule and procedures are designed to ensure that this value guides police officers’ use of firearms

            Rules- The policy stated above is the basis of the following set of rules that have been designed to guide officers in all cases involving the use of firearms.

            Rule 1- Police officers shall not discharge their firearms except to protect themselves and another person form imminent death or serious bodily injury.

            Rule 2- Police officers shall fire discharge their firearms only when doing so will not endanger innocent persons.

            Rule 3- Police officers shall not discharge their firearms to threaten or subdue person whose actions are destructive to property or injuries to themselves but which do not represent an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officers or others.

            Rule 4- Police officers shall not discharge their firearms to subdue an escaping suspect who presents no imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.

            Rule 5- Police officers shall not discharge their weapons at a moving vehicle unless it is absolutely necessary to do so to protect against an imminent threat to the life of the officer or others.

            Rule 6- Police officers when confronting an oncoming vehicle shall attempt to move out of the path, if possible, rather than discharging their firearms at the oncoming vehicle.

            Rule 7- Police officers shall not intentionally place themselves in the path of an oncoming vehicle and attempt to disable the vehicle by discharging their firearms.

            Rule 8- Police officers shall not discharge their firearms at a fleeing vehicle or its driver.

            Rule 9- Police officers shall not fire warning shots.

            Rule 10- Police officers shall not draw or display their firearms unless there is a threat or probable cause to believe there is a threat to life or for inspection.

            Mishandling of police family violence cases can have grave consequences. (Revis 1998)  A prime example of that of Melba Terre Ramos, whose husband, an officer in the LAPD, shot and killed her and her lover in August of 1992. (Revis, 1998)  According to the Los Angeles Times, “A month before the shooting, police officials became aware that the officer, Victor Felix Ramos, had previously pointed his gun at his wife and threatened to kill her. (Revis 1998)

            Police domestic violence is a great danger to the community and is a public concern.  Almost half of all 911 calls are domestic violence calls.  As Penny Harrington, a retired Portland, Oregan Police Chief and Director of the National Center for Women and Policing, states, “A police department that looks the other way when one of its officers commits domestic violence, is a police department that can not be effective in responding to domestic violence calls.”

RESEARCH ISSUES

            A bad problem with prosecuting officers that comet police brutality is that the attorneys tend to be on the side of the officers.  For example the case of the beating of Rodney King.  When the attorneys sided with the cops in the King case, this may have been the explanation of the other prosecutorial decisions, such as not bringing in outside police expert witnesses to interpret the videotape or not putting King in the witness box.  Yet the videotape was so compelling, had the assaulting cops been tried by a multiracial jury anywhere in urban America- in Los Angles or San Francisco, in Chicago or Detroit or Houston- they would likely had been convicted. (Skolnick)  Many people could not believe the decision of the jury to let the officers off the hook. Virtually all the potential jurors expressed positive opinions of the police.  About twenty five percent had relatives or friends who were police officers.  Judges are perfectly capable of hearing evidence and deciding gult or innocence.  Historically, juries were conceived as a check on judges who were thought to be so close to the authorities that ordinary folk would be treated unfairly in the courtroom. (Skolnick) 

            Roger Parloff, a writer in the newspaper The American Lawyer, wrote that the viewing public did not see the very beginning of the videotape of the King beating.  Parloff said that King showed superhuman strength and dished out the first ten punches.  The last forty-six blows is what they concentrated on.  Whenever King moves his arm toward his waistband they hit him.  When King appears to get back into a push-up position or pulls his knees up under him, the position from which he has twice before risen to his feet and advanced upon the officers, they hit him says Parloff.  The effects of the Rodney King beating not only effected the people involved but is also effected the public.  The King trail brought about a nightmare for African Americans and police violence against black people.  The Simi Valley verdict confirmed black American’s deepest suspicious of the Criminal Justice System and both the verdict and videotape shook the confidence of the public in the police and the Criminal Justice System. (Skolnick)  Since the King trail, it has been harder for cops to do their job, to be officers of the law.  Cops should not give out beatings or punishment when they think they should.  Any sensible and reflective police officers will understand that when a cop reaches above the law to use more force or coercion than is necessary to subdue a suspect, he or she undermines the very source of police authority. (Skolnick)  Some people believe that the reason why white cops are the one of the ones doing some of the beatings is because it is their way of keeping minorities in line and under their control.  Also, African Americans officers have beaten white victims of police brutality.  It is not unusually to see African American cops hit African American suvillians and White cops hit White suvillians.  A lot of young Black people and young Hispanic people have been yanked out of their cars by cops just because of the setero type that is put upon them.  They repelled against the police.  They said, “We’re tired of being treated like garbage.  We’re tired of living in a society that denies us the right to be considered as a human being.”(Skolnick)

            When brutality occurs, good Chiefs investigate deep.  When brutality is found, examples are made of those who committed it, those who failed to stop it, and those who covered it up. (Skolnick)  When brutality occurs in an well-organized police department, it usually is kept as a deep secret and nobody knows or does not tell anybody.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

www.copcrimes.com, Revis, Steve. 1998.

www.copkillers.com, Sickamor, Robert. 1993.

www.hrw.org/reports98/police/uspo14.html, Flawer, Justice. 1998.

Above The Law: Police and The Excessive Use of Force.  Skolnick, Jerome H.  New York: Free Press, c1993

 [Comments: A good late part 2 effort. Hurry and catchup on part 3. Other things: I'd like to see a more informative, focused title, and you need to stop referencing yourself in the first person; e.g., note how I changed your "As I said before" to "As previously stated."]
[Comments: Thanks for sending in Part 3. It looks like you did some work on it.  I called your part 3 section Research "Issues" because you didn't really propose any plan or outline any methods.  The reference section will need touched up soon. Ready for Part IV.]

Last updated 11/22/02