Justice Department Issues Critical Report On Baltimore Police Department

The Baltimore Police Department has disproportionately targeted African Americans for stops and arrests, a Justice Department investigation has found.

The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation in May 2015, after the city was beset by protests and riots over the death of Freddie Gray.

The findings include:

— Too many unjustified stops — for no good legal reason — and with African-Americans bearing the burden.

— Too much unnecessary use of force.

— Police retaliating at people for exercising their right to free speech and protest

— Inadequate training of police in Baltimore and not enough oversight to weed out the bad cops

The review concludes that many of the abuses are after-effects of a now-discredited policy:

"Starting in at least the late 1990s, ... City and BPD leadership responded to the City's challenges by encouraging "zero tolerance" street enforcement that prioritized officers making large numbers of stops, searches, and arrests—and often resorting to force—with minimal training and insufficient oversight from supervisors or through other accountability structures. These practices led to repeated violations of the constitutional and statutory rights, further eroding the community's trust in the police.

...

"BPD's legacy of zero tolerance enforcement continues to drive its policing in certain Baltimore neighborhoods and leads to unconstitutional stops, searches, and arrests. Many BPD supervisors instruct officers to make frequent stops and arrests—even for minor offenses and with minimal or no suspicion—without sufficient consideration of whether this enforcement strategy promotes public safety and community trust or conforms to constitutional standards. These instructions, coupled with minimal supervision and accountability for misconduct, lead to constitutional violations."

The report says building relationships in all communities is a better way to head-off crime:

"We encourage BPD to be proactive, to get to know Baltimore's communities more deeply, build trust, and reduce crime together with the communities it serves."

Over the past few years, the Justice Department has conducted similar investigations in places like Newark, Ferguson, Mo., and Albuquerque. It has often come to similar conclusions: police departments were violating the civil rights of citizens with racially biased police practices and excessive use of force.

Many times, these investigations lead to negotiations and agreements between police departments and the Justice Department that are designed to curb some of the violations. Those agreements often involve more stringent record-keeping and the appointment of an independent monitor who makes sure changes that are agreed to actually happen.

In Baltimore, it was outgoing Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake who called for a federal probe after near-daily protests boiled over into a night of riots in the spring of 2015.

The demonstrators demanded justice for Gray, who suffered a fatal spine injury in police custody. A total of six officers were charged in the death. Three were acquitted during bench trials and prosecutors dropped charges for the remaining three officers last month.