Justice Department issues use of force reforms for Albuquerque Police
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Albuquerque, New Mexico, Police Department will undergo reform and be monitored for use of excessive force under an agreement announced on Friday between the city and the U.S. Justice Department.
The agreement follows a federal investigation that concluded the department used excessive, even deadly, force against passive civilians. People suffering from mental illness were disproportionately targeted, the investigation found.
Under the new rules, Albuquerque police will be prohibited from firing at moving vehicles, required to wear body cameras to record their encounters and limited in their use of electronic control weapons, such as tasers.
Aww man... no more firing wildly at moving vehicles?
A reduction in tasing?
This is going to take all the fun out of protecting and serving the People.
The Justice Department inquiry, which was prompted by public complaints, concluded that a majority of 20 fatal officer-involved-shootings from 2009 to 2012 were unconstitutional. In one high profile case, a U.S. veteran of the Iraq war suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder was killed in an incident that led to a $10 million civil judgment against the city.
Better late than never, but really, this attention needs to be generalized to the entire nation because it is not JUST Alburquerque: it's everywhere.
The pattern is clear and only getting worse.
I HOPE these orders have teeth.
Because when the Justice Department first released their initial review, the APD responded by buying a shitload of AR-15s because the Justice Department complianed about them prizing those guns.
A U.S. Department of Justice report cited Albuquerque police in April for engaging in a “pattern and practice” of using excessive force, and Police Chief Gorden Eden told officers the following month they could no longer carry their personal weapons – including AR-15s – in the field.
The DOJ report found officers would purchase expensive weapons they viewed as “status symbols.”
“I think it sends a contradictory message to the public, and I think it should raise concerns about how seriously they’re actually taking the DOJ reforms,” Simonson said.
A spokeswoman for the police chief said the weapons were “ordered as replacements for officers’ authorized personally-owned rifles” and did “not represent an increase in the number of rifles carried by APD officers.”
Bolding is mine
Sacks of shit like this need to be fired and replaced with SOMEBODY who has a shred of caring about human life.
The Justice Department orders are great, but there needs to be a top to bottom replacement of thousands of police officers that are simply unfit to have a badge and a gun.
It. is. that. simple.