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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:10 pm
Time: 9:10 pm
Results for police misconduct (san antonio, texas)
1 results foundAuthor: Texas Civil Rights Project Title: Police Misconduct in San antonio: The Need for More Accountability, Transparency, and Responsiveness Summary: A string of incidents in the past few years has revealed a troubling pattern of misconduct by San Antonio police officers, ranging from illegal searches and sexual misconduct to unresponsiveness and indifference to victims. The thread connecting these incidents is the fact that better supervision, accountability, and transparency by SAPD could have prevented them. The Texas Civil Rights Project has documented many of these events, discovered through media reports, accounts from community members, SAPD records, and its own intake process. A review of SAPD’s response to many of these incidents shows that misconduct is often addressed too late — after an officer does something egregious, and too late for the department to try and remedy the officer’s dangerous habits and tendencies. SAPD itself has commissioned a number of independent auditors to study some of these issues. To its credit, some changes are beginning to take place, though many reforms have not yet been considered, fallen by the wayside, or have yet to be implemented. This report discusses a departmental culture that protects its own and is unwelcoming of supervision. Citizens report a variety of problems in dealing with the police, often when they are the victims and especially when they attempt to lodge complaints against the police. Internal Affairs’ policies and practices create a hostile environment for individuals reporting possible police misconduct. The agency also suffers from a serious lack of transparency that impedes public scrutiny, and many roadblocks protect officers against the possibility of serious repercussions for most of their actions. SAPD’s current police chief, William McManus, has made efforts to move the department in the right direction by listening to citizens’ concerns and pushing for changes. In order to encourage continued improvement on this front, this report provides forty-one (41) specific recommendations that address institutional problems in SAPD’s culture, training, and policies. The recommended changes focus on the following areas: • improving the investigation of citizen complaints through greater autonomy for investigators and providing better information and follow-up for complainants; • increasing supervisor accountability for misconduct by subordinates when the supervisor fails to report or address it; • facilitating supervisors’ oversight of police officers through the creation of standardized disciplinary guidelines and better monitoring of officers’ job performance; • supporting officers in dealing with the challenges and pressures of law enforcement through access to mental health services, employee assistance programs, and supervisor training; and, • equipping officers to deal better with victims and groups who are subject to discrimination, through regular in-service training and partnerships with community organizations, and adding two victim liaisons to the police force. Details: Austin, TX: Texas Civil Rights Project, 2011. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 15, 2013 at: http://www.texascivilrightsproject.org/docs/sapd/Police_Misconduct_in_San_Antonio-TCRP_Human_Rights_Report.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.texascivilrightsproject.org/docs/sapd/Police_Misconduct_in_San_Antonio-TCRP_Human_Rights_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 127519 Keywords: Police Misconduct (San Antonio, Texas)Police Use of Force |