This is a quick hit-and-run because I have to work today, but this information seemed important to justice for all. Please forgive if it’s already been posted.
From Think Progress: Why Is It So Hard To Convict Police Officers? The Answer Is In The Fine Print.
A study by a criminologist who often examines policies for the DOJ found earlier this year that the contract between Baltimore and the Fraternal Order of Police contains several “offensive provisions” that prevent accountability and that violate “best practices” across the country. Provisions including the expungement of internal records and the existence of a “do not call” list of officers who cannot testify “impede the effective investigation of reported misconduct and shield officers who are in fact guilty of misconduct from meaningful discipline,” the study found.
The group identified four major ways in which union contracts protect officers in ways that prevent accountability:
1. Preventing police officers from being interrogated immediately after being involved in an incident.
2. Preventing information on past misconduct investigations from being recorded or retained in an officer’s personnel file.
3. Disqualifying misconduct complaints that are submitted 180+ days after an incident or that take over 1 year to investigate.
4. Limiting civilian oversight structures from being given the authority to discipline officers for misconduct.
Campaign Zero found that these four provisions are consistently written into contracts for police unions in major cities across the country. Austin, Texas and Columbus, Ohio are particularly problematic, Singyangwe said, but most major cities have at least one of these “unfair provisions.”
There is a graphic of places that have these restrictions.
But check out the whole article!
Toward justice for all!