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Police Brutality Forces Pittsburgh |
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By Claudia Coates
PITTSBURGH, PA-It's Big Brother with a twist - technology to watch
not the average Joe but city police officers, looking for patterns
of misbehavior. After years of allegations of beatings and false
arrests, the Pittsburgh Police Department - under orders from
the federal government - will begin tracking complaints against
officers next month. One complaint too many - running a siren
unnecessarily, threatening someone at a traffic stop, manhandling
a suspect - and the new computer (monitoring) system will notify
police supervisors that they may have a problem.
Police union officials hate the idea, calling it "spying"
on the people hired to protect the public. But others say it
is necessary to root out problem officers, whether that problem
is violence, drinking or drugs. "You don't want that person
carrying a gun," said Gerard Arenberg, a spokesman for the
National Assn. of Chiefs of Police. The nation's police forces
have struggled with sporadic problems for years, with headlines
on such black-eye issues as the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles,
four Indianapolis officers charged in a drunken brawl, and New
York City officers accused of brutalizing a Haitian immigrant.
The complaints in Pittsburgh have been disquieting too.
Two women said police beat them when they stopped to watch officers
beat a man. A disabled woman said police strip-searched her at
a traffic stop while her children watched. A Baptist minister
said he was wrongly beaten and arrested while listening to gospel
music at home. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union
sued the city, and then the Justice Department's civil rights
division got involved, concluding that the Police Department had
condoned police brutality since the mid-1980s. A federal consent
decree accepted by the city called for computer monitoring of
complaints against officers, reports from officers each time they
use force or conduct a search and the hiring of an independent
auditor to monitor police. The agreement resolved the ACLU action.
"If an officer can be held accountable for his actions, if
he's going to be reprimanded, then I think that will be acceptable,"
Gerald Hess, whose run-in with police put him in the hospital
for more than a week, said after the agreement. A kidney dialysis
patient pulled over in a traffic stop in 1993, Hess was punched
and yanked from his car after he told an officer: "See you
in court." He won $200,000.00 in a legal battle. James
Pasco, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police's national
headquarters in Miami, denounced the monitoring program. He said
fewer than 1% of police are fired for misconduct or criminal behavior.
(How many reports of police abuse are never filed because the
complainant is intimidated out of making one? WFI Editor)
"Rather than raise spying on the private lives of officers
to an art form, maybe they ought to use some of their creativity
to find ways to better recruit and train officers," Pasco
said. Pittsburgh Police Chief Robert McNeilly said the information
in question has always been gathered, just not easily accessed.
"It's a system that gives every supervisor the ability to
look at everyone under their command and look into their history,"
he said Tuesday. "It tells if they need some retraining."
One of the new computer databases, the Early Warning System, will
track valid complaints and notify supervisors when it detects
a pattern of misbehavior. The supervisor might order counseling,
retraining or suspension. It goes online April 16th.
The chief also wants to give every officer three days of training
per year - one on ethics, one on cultural diversity and one on
communication skills for use when somebody tries to bait an officer
into fighting. The Carnegie Group and Para Data software companies,
both based in Pittsburgh, hope to market their designs in other
cities.
SOURCE: Reprinted from the 22 March, 1998, issue of the Los Angeles
Times, Orange County Edition. Reprinted in the public service
of the national interest of the American people.
(WFI EDITOR: The American people are entitled to some
kind of checks and balances from the power of the police. Honest
police should have no problem with reporting incidents, and allowing
oversight by the civilian community. It is suspicious that police
unions, that are supposed to be setting standards for police conduct,
would be against anything that improves the public relations of
the law enforcement profession, and which assists in guaranteeing
its integrity. If only 1% of police have problems, then why oppose
a reporting system? For those of you who feel that you need to report police abuse, first call the "watch commander," of the precinct where the problem occurred. If you do not get satisfaction, you must make a formal report with a division called Internal Affairs (IA). IA is the personnel department of the police, and complaints made through IA go on the individual officer's permanent employment record. ALL COMPLAINTS BECOME AN ISSUE WHEN PAY RAISE TIME COMES AROUND. It also helps later victims, if there are any, to prove that a particular officer has a problem. Don't be afraid to stand up for your rights, just do it the right way. And above all, don't object to a policeman to his face; it will only inflame the situation. Speak directly to his boss, the watch commander.) |
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