Paste your esIntroduction
Under the NYPD’s use of force policy, all police officers are liable and accountable for the proper use of force under proper conditions. Deadly physical force will be used as a last resort and consistent with Department procedure and law. There are certain forms of restraints that are prohibited by the NYPD. One being Hogtie, in which a person is restrained by connecting or tying rear cuffed hands to cuffed or bound ankles or legs, standing on a subject’s chest and chokeholds. “A chokehold shall comprise, but is not limited to, any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may stop or hamper breathing or reduce intake of air.” Such holds have been prohibited since 1992, yet some officers still use it as a form of restraint. On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner a 43 year old man from Staten Island was suspected of selling illegal cigarettes, when he was approached by some plain clothes officers. When he was approached by these 2 officers he can be seen on video with both his hands raised telling the officers not to touch him. A few moments later the video shows when an officer grabs Garner from behind and pulls him down onto the concrete, the officers rolled him onto his stomach. In the video you can clearly hear Mr. Garner stating repeatedly “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Eric Garner, 43, was pronounced dead later that day. The cause of Garner’s death was “compression of neck (chokehold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police,” the medical examiner’s office ruled it a homicide. The Garner case became symbolic as the occurrence that launched the Black lives matter movement.
A little over a year after the death of Eric Garner the use of force policy of the NYPD was revamped. The public, angry by the increasing targeting and use of these approaches on black men primarily, called for greater accountability when police officers used force that appeared irrational. It is sad to say that the death of Eric Garner is not the first incident that involved a chokehold being applied by the NYPD to a minority. Since 1994 there have been over 2,300 incidents where people claim that the police used chokeholds. They mostly end in the death of typically minority men. The most recent incidents have stimulated demonstrations around the country under the slogan “I CAN’T BREATHE” the issue has been construed more broadly as a problem of poor policy- community interaction by NYPD brass.
(HYPOTHESIS)
How can the NYPD policy on cooperating with the public be improved to efficiently prevent events like the deaths of Eric Garner, Anthony Baez and other tragedies from happening again?
In June 1996, the NYPD implemented a program called the Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect (CPR) program. The CPR program’s goal is to encourage professionalism within the department, including the endless display of courtesy and respect toward the citizens of New York City. The NYPD started the program in response to a rise in the number of complaints against the NYPD. Many of the complaints claimed discourteous conduct by members of the NYPD. In order to improve the condition it is important that officers understand the need for respectful treatment of the people of New York. The problem that existed back in 1996 is still alive today. This is why the bulk of police officers need to be retrained at the academy level.
Assessment of the Problem:
One of the worst kept secrets in law enforcement is the use of quotas. Quotas are the number of tickets issued by an officer for parking tickets, moving violations, issuing quality of life summonses and even for making arrests. When former police Commissioner Bratton took office he stated “there are no quotas in the NYPD and if I find any of my personnel operating under a quota system, they’re going to be gone. We are after quality, not quantity.” The problem with these quotas is that it can get particularly bad when officers start to view the public they’re policing as a source of income. This problem will not be fixed until the higher ups in headquarters at 1 police plaza stop using these numbers as a tool for advancement. The pressure to arrest more and to write more summons comes from high up above. There is very little doubt that the Police Commissioner was not aware of what was happening at the precinct level.
How quotas work is by, the Precinct Captains or Lieutenants are informed from 1 police plaza, they in turn tell officers to meet precise goals concerning arrests and summonses. The bosses at the Precinct level are just following orders from their bosses and unfortunately if you’re at the bottom of the totem pole, then you’ll get the worst of it. Cops are usually denied overtime and vacation, demoted to horrible posts and ultimately threatened with being fired for not making quotas. The bosses do not care how many people you’ve helped with their issues or how many lives you’ve saved. All they care about is how many summonses and arrest you have for the month. Arrest and summons quotas for police officers are counterproductive, and they spread mistrust between cops and communities. This is mainly why the trust in the police by the communities that it polices is virtually gone.
Table1
The use of force policy of the NYPD was revised after the death of Eric Garner in July 2014. Between July 2009 and June 2014 settlements in NYC added up to a total of $428 million. NYPD has also paid close to $1 billion over the past decade to resolve complaints against the nation’s biggest police department, according to an investigation by The Associated Press. The Garner family sued the city of New York for $75 million dollars for the death of Eric Garner. In 2015 the city settled with the family for $5.9 million. These types of payouts are not rare for New York City, where complaints against members of NYPD have increased by 31% over the last five years. In that time, the city has dished out nearly a half-billion dollars in claims. According to the Comptroller’s Office, there were 9,500 claims filed against the police department in 2013, to the tune of $137 million. The total amount paid out in 2014 increased to $212 million. The Civilian Complaint Review Board claimed that the number of chokeholds in New York City were mostly in the Brooklyn area. The 75th Precinct in Brooklyn recorded the most chokehold complaints in that period 65 followed by the 73rd Precinct in Ocean Hill and Brownsville, Brooklyn, which logged 52 separate complaints. It seems that a large amount of chokehold victims are minorities.
“A Mutated Rule: Lack of Enforcement in the Face of Persistent Chokehold Incidents in New York City,” New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (2014)
In 2015 the (CCRB) reported in their annual report that they received 219 chokehold complaints in under a year from July 2013 through June 2014, which was a surprising amount of chokehold complaint that CCRB had not seen since the 2006-2010 period (See Table 1). During that period, the CCRB received more than 200 chokehold complaints per year. While 2014 saw a decrease in chokehold complaints from 2013, the mission at hand was to reduce that number to zero. According to CCRB the average tenure of officers involved in a chokehold incident was 7.9 years. The median was 6.4 years. Approximately one quarter of officers (23.3%) involved in these chokehold incidents had 3 and half years or less on the force and about half the officers (46.9%) involved in chokeholds had 5 or fewer years of tenure. Three quarters (75.5%) had 10 or fewer years of service. What these numbers found is that aside from the burden of quotas, the police officers who use excessive force as a first option are young in experience. The numbers state that 47% rely on the use of excessive force as a choice, that number is shocking because I myself have about 5 years of experience as a police officer and have been in my fair share of physical confrontations with criminals. I have never had to use a chokehold maneuver when trying to subdue a criminal. The numbers provided by CCRB of chokeholds applied by NYPD officers are not an all-time high as they once were in 2009 when they were close to 250 complaints filed. The trend of chokeholds by the NYPD is likely to reduce with the new program that former Police Commissioner Bratton put into place in January 2015, the program is called “field-training program” where new officers are assigned to a senior Police officer for 6 to 12 months for direction and instruction to build on their academy experience. In a city like New York the Commissioner and the Mayor realized that the strategy of the old Mayor and Commissioner was a big problem. Operation impact was the policy that was in place before Police Commissioner Bratton was in office in which rookie officers would be sent into the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city once they exited the Police academy. These neighborhoods are tough for senior police officers to patrol, so sending these rookies into these high crime areas was not a very smart idea. If you’re sending people who have virtually no experience on the streets as police officers that’ll come with a larger level of nervousness and uncertainty and that is just a recipe for failure. The timeline below shows what steps have been applied since Eric Garner’s death.
Policy Assessment: NYPD Patrol Guide Section no (203-11) Use of Force
The NYPD’s Patrol guide is very clear on the use of excessive force. It states that “All uniformed members of the service are responsible and accountable for the proper use of force under appropriate circumstances. Members of the service are reminded that the application of force must be consistent with existing law and with New York City Police Department Values, by which we pledge to value human life and respect the dignity of each individual”. It also states that the primary duty of all members of the service is to preserve human life. Only the amount of force necessary to overcome resistance will be used to make an arrest or take a mentally ill or emotionally disturbed person into custody. Deadly physical force will be used ONLY as a last resort and consistent with Department policy and the law. According to the patrol guide of the NYPD “at the scene of a police incident, many members of the service may be present and some members may not be directly involved in taking police actions. However, this does not relieve any member present of the obligation to ensure that the requirements of the law and Department regulations are complied with. Members of the service are required to maintain control and intervene if the use of force against a subject becomes excessive. Failure to do so may result in both criminal and civil liability. EXCESSIVE FORCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. There’s a specific section in the Patrol Guide where the Use of Force is broken down into 3 sub section. It clearly states that (A). A Member of service must immediately establish firearms control (B). Use minimum necessary force (C). Employ non-lethal alternatives, as appropriate. Members of the New York City Police Department will NOT use chokeholds. A chokehold shall include, but is not limited to, any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air. Whenever it becomes necessary to take a violent or resisting subject into custody, responding officers should use appropriate tactics in an organized effort to overcome resistance. Even with this policy being in place this unfair behavior still exist. After the recent incidents that have occurred in not just the city of New York but in cities across the country, the city’s policy has come under scrutiny. There seems to be some misperception not just by the police officers applying this prohibited practice but also by those who are in charge of investigating the use of force complaints against Police Officers. The overseers of the NYPD are investigating more than 1,000 civilian complaints about cops using chokeholds and seem to be confused as to what constitutes a chokehold. Before former Civilian Complaint Review Board chair Richard Emery stepped down from his position he admitted that some of his detectives were having problems trying to figure out just what constitutes a banned chokehold. According Mr. Emery “Under the common sense reading of the patrol guide, a chokehold is defined as any time that an officer makes contact with the throat in a way that ‘may’ constrict or restrict breathing,” he said. “Many investigators in their understanding required an ‘actual’ restriction of breath”, that seems to be the reason why many of the complaints are not being substantiated by the investigators at CCRB. They seem to need both restricted breathing and constricted part in order to rule against the officer, instead of either or.
Literature review
The literature that exists on the prohibited use of chokeholds includes many peer review journals, media articles and agency reports that mostly focus on the frequent use of the banned procedure. As you would have thought, nearly all the literature articles that I was able to find where after the Eric Garner incident. There are the Observations on Accountability and Transparency in Ten NYPD Chokehold Cases (2015) by The Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD. In which the organization showed a review of the most recent cases where the Civilian Complaint Review Board determined that NYPD officers used “chokeholds. The report made 4 recommendations, 1. Increase direction and collaboration between NYPD and CCRB to reassess and refine the punitive system for improper uses of force, 2. Provide direct and clear understanding with respect to the Police Commissioner’s disciplinary decisions, 3. Increase IAB’s access to newly-filed complaints and essential information on use-of-force cases filed with CCRB, 4. Improve Information Sharing and Case Tracking for Cases that are handled at the Borough and Precinct via the Office of the Chief of Department and the Investigative Review Section. The objective of this report by the Inspector General of the NYPD is to conduct a more in depth review on the topic of use of force, accountability, and training in the coming months. They also want to make the information available to the public in future reports.
A Mutated Rule: Lack of Enforcement in the Face of Persistent Chokehold Complaints in New York City (2014) mentioned that officers have continued to perform chokeholds and, based on the complaints the CCRB received from the public, the use of chokeholds appears to be on the rise despite the Patrol Guide prohibition. The report mentions that From January 1, 2009 through June 30, 2014, members of the public filed 1,048 complaints involving chokehold allegations. The CCRB received 240 complaints in 2009; 207 in 2010; 157 in 2011; 157 in 2012; 179 in 2013; and 108 from January through June 2014. Prior to this period, from January 2009 through December 2010, the average number of chokehold complaints received was 112 chokehold complaints every 6 months. It decreased to an average of 76 complaints per each six-month from January 2011 through June 2013. It finally increased to an average of 109.5 complaints per each six months from July 2013 through June 2014. The report has a sole recommendation and that is the creation of an NYPD-CCRB working group to work in partnership to reduce chokehold incidents and enforce the chokehold ban. They believe that in order to stop these incidents from reoccurring the NYPD should focus on six key areas: 1. redefining and expanding, if necessary, this particular prohibited use of force; 2. Enforcing the ban through appropriate and organized discipline; 3. Sharing data collection and studies to create an early warning system that identifies officers, precincts and commands at risk; 4. Applying new training procedures that command trainees learn the many different aspects of a chokehold so they will be able to abide the ban; 5. Training officers to use different methods for detaining suspects; and 6. Requiring that NYPD administrative judges follow the Patrol Guide rule rather than ignoring its clear prohibition, whether based on sympathy for officers in threatening situations or other reasons. Another scholarly article that speaks on the serious issue of chokeholds is Harmon (2015) In this article the author states that the killings by law enforcement of Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray and Samuel Dubose symbolize a racist movement by police officer so dangerous that he compares it to lynching. The author criticized the judgment used by police officers in these arrests and he talks about removing some low level crimes, reducing sentences, gathering more data, and prosecuting police officers more often. Coyne, Blanco (2016) which deals with how police officers network with minority communities. The report states that despite a 20-year ban on use of chokeholds by the NYPD, the use and the complaints are on the rise. According to the civilian complaint review board approximately 63 percent of those who filed a complaint were black. Some 25 percent were Hispanic. This shows that the bulk of times these chokeholds are being applied by police officers are towards minorities. Plant and Peruche (2005) state that black men in general are painted as violent and criminal; police are more likely to view them as a danger and in turn use deadly force. They also state that white police officers usually fear black men and because of that use deadly physical force. They discuss that fear as “Negrophobia” Negrophobia can be described as an illogical fear of Blacks that also includes a fear of being victimized by whites, which in turn results in whites shooting or hurting African Americans as a form of self-defense. The studied also revealed that white officers were more likely to mistakenly shoot an unarmed Black suspects as oppose to unarmed White suspects. In conclusion the study proposes that police departments should focus more on recruiting in not only the suburbs but also the inner cities. Even the present Commissioner has stated that New York’s police force should resemble the city it patrols.
Conclusion
In conclusion chokeholds is a tactic that can be prevented through different methods. The department looks to end the use of the banned policy by applying a yearly training of police officers. The training started in 2015 and it is too early to know if training is the solution.
say in here…