The Miami Beach Police Department is plagued by a culture of violence and impunity. The three largest departments in the country — New York, Chicago and Los Angeles — all begin their use of force guidelines with firm reminders that excessive force will not be tolerated. The NYPD specifically reminds officers that they are criminally and civilly liable for excessive force, and that officers are expected to intervene when they see brutality on the part of their colleagues. By contrast, Miami Beach’s guidelines limit themselves from the beginning to explaining when force is justified: “when officers reasonably believe it to be necessary to affect an arrest or to defend themselves or another from bodily harm.” Ray Taseff, a cooperating attorney in an ACLU suit against the department, said a police force’s written policies are important in establishing institutional control. “The policy is the ultimate reflection of what the department’s priorities are,” Taseff said. “If there are strong, affirmative statements about force being used sparingly and only in necessary circumstances, those should be the first sentence of the policy.” Yet most critics of the department say the problem lies less in the rules than in how — or whether — officers are disciplined when they break them. “There’s a yahoo culture at the City of Miami Beach, where they tolerate all sorts of police behavior,” said John de Leon, a civil rights attorney and a former president of the Miami chapter of the ACLU. “Accountability is key. If complaints [against cops] are sustained and there’s discipline, you start creating a culture of accountability, which is how things actually start changing.” (-g)
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 11:31:08 +0000