A suburban New York police division routinely violated residents’ civil rights, together with making unlawful arrests and utilizing pointless strip and cavity searches, based on a brand new US Division of Justice report.
The report on a sample and follow of police misconduct on the division in Mount Vernon, simply north of New York Metropolis, is one in all 12 investigations opened by the DOJ into native policing companies since 2021, together with these sparked by the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.
No single incident prompted the investigation into Mount Vernon’s roughly 160-officer power. However the unlawful strip search in 2020 of two girls, one age 65 and the opposite 75, have been emblematic of the division’s shortcomings, mentioned the report, which was launched Thursday.
Arrested on suspicion of shopping for medication, officers searched the ladies’s automotive, discovered nothing, and hauled them right into a police station in handcuffs, the report mentioned. Supervisors there accepted a completely nude strip search by detectives who “advised them to bend over and cough”.
After an inner investigation discovered that the officers had lied concerning the pair shopping for medication, these concerned have been docked just a few trip days, the report mentioned.
The police union representing officers within the division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Till at the very least the autumn of 2022, it was the Mount Vernon power’s follow to strip-search each individual it arrested, based on the report. Officers additionally strip-searched individuals they didn’t arrest, detained and interrogated individuals with out formally arresting them, and arrested individuals for verbally criticizing cops.
Unlawful strip and cavity searches continued into at the very least 2023, the report discovered. The investigators mentioned that whereas the follow was “curtailed” throughout its probe, “we aren’t assured that these practices have ended.” Amongst a catalog of unconstitutional arrests, the DOJ recognized a case the place officers took the mom of a capturing sufferer to a police station and interrogated her, at the same time as her dying daughter was rushed to the hospital. The daughter, struck by a stray bullet, died whereas her mom was in custody. Officers didn’t articulate possible trigger for her detention.
Officers additionally arrested individuals for cursing at police, violating their proper to free speech, the DOJ mentioned.
The division additionally suffered from monetary mismanagement, which exacerbated pervasive human rights violations rooted in unlawful insurance policies and lack of coaching, the report mentioned. It famous that low salaries make it onerous to draw and retain high quality officers, prepare employees and pay its payments, ravenous its provide price range.
The report famous that town is already taking steps to enhance its policing. It supplied a collection of suggestions, together with implementing measures “to make sure that unconstitutional strip and physique cavity searches don’t happen.” In an announcement, Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard mentioned town would work with the DOJ to deal with its findings.
“We wholeheartedly help our good officers and on the identical time won’t tolerate and can punish unconstitutional policing,” mentioned Patterson-Howard, a Democrat.
The assertion famous that three cops and two civilian workers had been fired following an investigation in 2021. A spokesperson for the mayor didn’t instantly reply to questions on when and why these individuals have been fired.
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