MARYLAND COUNTY SEEKS TO END PLAGUE OF POLICE LIABILITY.After years of lawsuits alleging excessive use of force by police, Prince George's County, MD, reached agreements with the Justice Department Jan. 22 intended to spell out and ensure reformed procedures. The federal investigation began with the police department's canine unit in 1999 after reports that officers set dogs on suspects for no reason. It widened in 2000 after an undercover officer shot an unarmed student in the back after tailing him to northern Virginia Northern Virginia (NoVA) consists of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, and Manassas Park. . The officer was cleared of criminal charges, but the student's family has filed a $40 million lawsuit. In that case, as in others, the injured citizens were black - although in that case, as in others, the officer involved was African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. , too. Over the last three years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time county has paid out nearly $10 million in damages and jury awards to settle police misconduct Police misconduct refers to objectional actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties, which can lead to a miscarriage of justice. Types of misconduct
Under the agreements, Justice will monitor the police department in suburban Washington, DC, for three years, the department rewrite its use-of-force and pepper spray policies and make other reforms. The county also signed a consent decree A settlement of a lawsuit or criminal case in which a person or company agrees to take specific actions without admitting fault or guilt for the situation that led to the lawsuit. A consent decree is a settlement that is contained in a court order. requiring police to review each dog bite dog bite Public health The clamping of skin and subjacent soft tissues between the upper and lower mandible of a canine, which may cause infections, acting as a disease vector or even death. See Dog. and train dogs to bark at suspects rather than bite them. The county admitted no wrongdoing wrong·do·er n. One who does wrong, especially morally or ethically. wrong  do . Police Chief Melvin High said
the department has already implemented some of the requirements, such as
the "guard and bark" policy.
"These agreements will help lift a cloud that has hung over this department for many years," said R. Alexander Acosta, assistant attorney general for civil rights. Meanwhile, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived a lawsuit that claims a county officer used excessive force and made an unlawful arrest during a 1999 traffic stop. In Young v. Prince George's County et al. (02-7735), off-duty FBI agent Jerry Young (an African American) says after he was stopped for a defective taillight he was handcuffed, thrown to the ground and struck in the head when he told the officer he was an armed law-enforcement officer. A federal judge granted the defendants summary judgment, but the appellate panel said there was a question of whether excessive force was used. |
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