News: September 2010

FEMA HOSTS FIRST LATINO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT IN WASHINGTON

Published September 30, 2010

Summit Brings Together Latino Leaders from Across the Nation to Discuss Preparedness, Emergency Management
WASHINGTON - Today marks the final day of the first-ever FEMA Latino Leadership Summit.  The Summit brought together leaders from the Latino community, along with staff from FEMA and other federal agencies, to discuss community preparedness and emergency management. During the two day summit, there were a number of presentations, workshops and open discussions on all aspects of emergency management and engaging the public on the importance of preparing for an emergency.
“FEMA is not the team, FEMA is only part of the team,” said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.  “Only by engaging all our partners at the federal, state and local level, including the private sector, faith based and non-profit organizations, and especially the public can we be successful.  This summit was a great opportunity to speak with leaders in the Latino community on ways that we can better work together to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.”
Attendees at the summit included numerous FEMA officials, including FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, Deputy Administrator Rich Serino and Deputy Administrator for Preparedness Tim Manning.  Representatives also attended from the United States Department of Agriculture, Hispanic - Serving Health Professions Schools, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, National Latino Peace Officers Association, National Council of La Raza, the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
The Latino Leadership Summit is one of many new ways that FEMA is reaching out to a wide range of communities in order to further expand the emergency management team.  Earlier this month, FEMA Deputy Administrator Rich Serino joined with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to launch FEMA’s new series of Spanish-language public service advertisements encouraging Americans to take steps to prepare for emergencies.
In May, FEMA and the Black Leadership Forum came together to host the Black Leadership Summit in Washington, and just last week, FEMA hosted the “Getting Real” Conference that brought together leaders from the emergency management and the disability communities. 

Follow FEMA online at http://www.twitter.com/fema, http://www.facebook.com/fema, and http://www.youtube.com/fema.  Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate’s activities at http://www.twitter.com/craigatfema.  The social media links provided are for reference only.  FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.
FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Newark police union vote ‘no confidence’ in city’s police director after ACLU petition

Published September 17, 2010

NEWARK — Newark’s Superior Officers Association has reignited its feud with the city’s police director with a “no confidence” vote that may undercut his bid to remain at the helm of the state’s largest police force.

Mayor Cory Booker defended director Garry McCarthy and described the association’s action as political finger-pointing.

In faulting McCarthy, the 267-member union cited a petition by the American Civil Liberties Union calling for federal oversight of the department, looming layoffs and state and county reviews of the Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

Union president Capt. John Chrystal said he plans to present the complaints to the City Council before McCarthy’s reappointment hearing next month.

“The managers and supervisors of the Newark Police Department have no faith or confidence in his leadership ability,” said Chrystal.

RELATED COVERAGE:

• Attorney general, Essex County prosecutor to review Newark police internal affairs

• Reports show 1 in 10 complaints against Newark police officers are not fully reported to N.J.

• Newark Internal Affairs Division summary report (PDF)

The measure passed by a unanimous 53-0 vote at the union’s general assembly meeting Wednesday, said Chrystal, but only 20 percent of the group’s membership was present.

Booker was quick to defend the man he tasked with reducing violent crime four years ago, accusing the union of playing politics rather than helping the city find a way to avoid 167 layoffs and 112 demotions over the next two years.

“Garry’s record of accomplishment is unassailable, and during these difficult times the SOA seems more interested in pointing fingers than engaging in a serious conversation about how they might work with the City to address budget challenges,” Booker said in a statement yesterday.

McCarthy said the “no confidence” vote is the union’s latest attempt to undermine his authority. In 2008, while McCarthy was locked in a power struggle with former police chief Anthony Campos, the SOA filed a lawsuit to block him from overseeing the department’s day-to-day operations.

“I am disappointed but not surprised by the most recent actions by the (SOA) who have once again chosen division over unity,” McCarthy said in a statement. “There has been a consistent pattern by the leadership of the SOA to impede reform and improvements to the Agency that would benefit both the citizens of Newark and all of the members of the Newark Police Department.”

Layoffs and demotions remain the crux of the union’s grievances. Chrystal and Newark Fraternal Order of Police President Derrick Hatcher have repeatedly said they will not make concessions in contracts they ratified less than a year ago. Both have accused Booker of hiding the city’s cash crisis to secure his re-election bid in May.

Chrystal said McCarthy has “no plan” to reorganize the Department in the face of planned demotions that will vacate the rank of captain and leave no minorities ranked above lieutenant. McCarthy maintains the agency’s six deputy chiefs will be able to handle precinct commands, while demotions will not harm diversity in the department and actually create more racial balance at the rank of lieutenant.

The union’s announcement comes at a crucial time for McCarthy, who must go before a city council that has not hesitated to defy Booker in recent months. A recent straw poll of council members showed McCarthy has two “yes” votes and two “no” votes. Five remain undecided.

The FOP may also push for a “no confidence” vote next month, according to Hatcher, who said he will actively campaign to block McCarthy’s reappointment.

“We have absolutely no confidence in McCarthy,” he said. “This administration is wrong, and what McCarthy is doing is wrong. Nobody has attempted to find any monies, any way, to save any jobs here.”

Staff Writer David Giambusso contributed to this report.

James Queally/The Star-Ledger
Posted:  09/16/2010 9:48 PM

Attorney general, Essex County prosecutor to review Newark police internal affairs

Published September 15, 2010

Amy Newman/The RecordNew Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow, pictured above, and with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office are reviewing Newark police internal affairs after the ACLU filed a complaint last week.
NEWARK — The attorney general and the Essex County prosecutor have launched a joint review of the Newark Police Department’s internal affairs operation, following a week of allegations that police were not properly reporting results of cases and almost never sustain serious misconduct complaints against officers.
“Citizens have the right to have their complaints raised and recorded and appropriately acted on,” Attorney General Paula Dow said today. “If that’s not happening, we need to see where the problem is, especially in a city that’s seeing an uptick in major crimes.”
The review comes after the American Civil Liberties Union last week petitioned the U.S. Department of Justice for a federal investigation of the police department, saying it needs a federal monitor to stem police misconduct.
On Monday The Star-Ledger reported that Newark police have not reported the outcome of one of every 10 internal affairs complaints against its officers for almost a decade, a violation of state guidelines. That means it’s impossible to discern from annual public reports whether 1,315 out of 12,905 misconduct allegations resulted in disciplinary action.
Law enforcement officials said cases aren’t being dropped, but admitted there could be more scrutiny of the annual internal affairs reports all police departments are required to file.
“It’s a statewide problem,” Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino said. “It’s not just confined to Essex.”
The Newark police department said in a statement: “We will, of course, cooperate fully with the Attorney General while they review the issue.”
City officials have said the police department has been reforming and does not need a federal monitor.
Each police department files the annual reports with a county prosecutor, which then compiles a county-wide summary to send to the Attorney General’s Office. But despite multiple levels of potential review, a Star-Ledger analysis found accounting errors almost every year in Newark’s reports and in the statewide data.
Laurino said clerical personnel usually fill out the forms for his office.
“Because of that, it was never really picked up at our level or at the attorney general’s office,” he said. “We were unaware there had been that kind of a reporting problem.”
He said they are examining internal affairs procedures and a county official in charge of internal affairs may directly review reports in the future.
Police experts said the lack of reliable internal affairs information undermines external oversight, a key piece of state policy on police discipline. And critics said law enforcement officials are not paying enough attention to internal affairs.
“There’s no way to tell me this is the single most important document you have in internal affairs and you can’t even add the numbers correctly,” said Richard Rivera, a former police officer who works with the ACLU on police issues. “Police accountability and the integrity of internal affairs are not top priorities.”
The ACLU raised the issue last week when asking for a federal investigation of the Newark police.
“I’m glad the attention it’s gotten has motivated swift action,” said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the ACLU in New Jersey,
The ACLU’s petition said Newark internal affairs sustained only one allegation of excessive force, differential treatment or improper arrest, entry or search in 2008 and 2009.
Dow said her office’s review of internal affairs accounting will start in Newark but may expand, saying “if these issues are prevalent in other areas, we’ll look there as well.”
Statewide records from 2000 to 2008 show 90,423 complaints recorded but only 86,925 dispositions, the Star-Ledger analysis shows. That means the outcomes of almost 4 percent of cases are not available in public reports. The problem occurs when internal affairs complaints recorded as unresolved at the end of each year are not added to the next year’s annual report.
Published: Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 8:32 PM   Updated: Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 9:15 PM
Chris Megerian/Statehouse Bureau
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Department of Justice Intervention Sought for Newark Police

Published September 10, 2010

September 8, 2010/The New York Times
Department of Justice Intervention Sought for Newark Police

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

Excessive force, false arrests and other abuses by the Newark police are so rampant that the federal government should investigate and appoint a monitor to oversee the department, a civil liberties group charges in a petition it plans to file on Thursday.

Citing hundreds of claims of police misconduct, and the millions of dollars paid to settle some of them, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey called on the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to step in, as it has in overseeing the conduct of several other police agencies across the country. The complaint documents abuses by officers against not only civilians but also their fellow officers, and a culture of impunity, with few of the officers ever being punished.

The misconduct “has left citizens dead, permanently injured and otherwise damaged,” the petition contends, and has harmed the careers and mental health of good officers. “And,” the petition adds, “it has left innocent Newark residents distrustful of the police, unsure whether an encounter with them will lead to them being protected and served or beaten and arrested.”

A pattern of complaints about the Newark police stretches back decades, and when Cory A. Booker took office as mayor in 2006, ending the scandal-scarred, 20-year tenure of Sharpe James, he pledged to reform the Police Department. But the civil liberties group’s complaint to the Justice Department deals with the Booker era, a challenge to the image of a mayor who is often mentioned as a potential candidate for higher office.

The 96-page petition covers records from the courts, the police, the City Council and news reports, and offers a level of analysis that the civil liberties union had not done before, said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the group. For that reason, it is impossible to say whether abuses have become more or less frequent under Mr. Booker, Ms. Jacobs said. But, she added, “it’s clear that the same kinds of things that were going on before are still going on.”

The civil liberties union said it provided copies of the petition to the offices of Mr. Booker and Police Director Garry F. McCarthy last week.

“The city of Newark was extremely disappointed when it reviewed the A.C.L.U.’s petition,” a city spokeswoman, Esmeralda Diaz Cameron, said in an e-mail. “We find the A.C.L.U. petition is frivolous and submitted in bad faith. It’s disingenuous for the A.C.L.U. to focus on lawsuits that were submitted before the current administration took office.”

The Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing most officers, did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.

Over a period of two and a half years that ended on July 1, the civil liberties group found, 51 lawsuits were filed against the Newark police, most of them claiming intentional misconduct like beatings, theft, illegal searches, retaliation against people who reported other transgressions, threats and harassment of officers and civilians. In 50 other cases, people filed notices of tort claims, often precursors to lawsuits, and in 21 instances, they asserted serious police misdeeds but took no legal action.

In the same period, the petition says, the city settled 38 police-misconduct cases for a total of at least $4.7 million (the amounts for six of those cases were not available), though many of them were filed years earlier.

Last December, Newark settled a case involving the death of Rasheed Moore for $1 million; he was shot by an officer during a struggle. In 2008, the city agreed to pay $250,000 in a case in which the police, while raiding a home, set fire to the bed in which a mother and her children were sleeping.

Violent crime in Newark fell for a few years after the arrival of Mr. Booker and the police director he hired, Mr. McCarthy, though the city remains one of the state’s most dangerous. But killings are up this year, and officials have warned that budget deficits will mean the layoffs of officers.

“I think that Director McCarthy has expertise and he’s committed to change, but he has limited resources, and his hands are often tied by politics and policies,” Ms. Jacobs said.

Mr. McCarthy has created a committee with members from other government agencies and private groups to recommend improvements to the department, but the civil liberties group dismissed the results as mostly cosmetic. The department has repeatedly rejected the idea of an independent monitor, or a board to review complaints.

The group said the department had long been unable or unwilling to take action against officers who misbehave.

The civil liberties union cited 261 complaints filed with the department’s Internal Affairs office in 2008 and 2009 that charged serious misconduct — acts like excessive force or unlawful searches and arrests. The department upheld a complaint against an officer in just one of those cases, it said.

Of the 38 recent lawsuit settlements, the petition described the 26 in which the person abused was not another officer, and said the department had given no indication that any of the officers involved “were disciplined for the conduct that led to these lawsuits.” The petition contends that the pattern of misconduct discourages residents from cooperating with the police, a factor contributing to Newark’s high rate of crime.

Minority Cops Remain A Rare Sight

Published September 6, 2010

Sunday, September 5, 2010
Last updated: Sunday September 5, 2010, 10:32 AM
BY ERIK SHILLING
The Record
STAFF WRITER
Nearly every day, Englewood patrolman Carlos Marte translates something from Spanish into English — sometimes for other officers and less often for medical emergencies and other serious needs. But Marte, one of 16 Hispanic officers in Englewood, says speaking Spanish only helps to a point.
“On a ticket, whether I speak Spanish or not, they aren’t too happy,” he said.
Marte, a 13-year police veteran, is one of slightly more than 100 Hispanic officers in Bergen County, where there are around 2,000 officers in town police departments — about 90 percent of them white, according to a Record survey. Even while Hispanic, Indian and Korean populations have grown, the number of white police officers has remained stable. Police chiefs say they have tried to diversify their ranks.
The economic crisis is one factor making it difficult to hire minority officers. “The fight right now isn’t to get minorities, it’s to get bodies,” said Michael Saudino, president of the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association.
Some departments have reacted to demographic changes more swiftly than others. Fort Lee, for example, has hired three Korean officers in recent years after the borough’s Korean population began to increase. Still, there are fewer than 70 African-American police officers in Bergen County, and fewer than two dozen of Asian or Middle Eastern descent. In Passaic County, police are significantly more diverse — largely thanks to Paterson’s efforts — but, like their Bergen counterparts, overwhelmingly male.
Whites made up 77 percent of Bergen’s population in 2009, compared to 87 percent in 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In Passaic County, the numbers of whites have grown — from 72 percent 20 years ago to 78 percent in 2009.
Police chiefs in some towns, such as Montvale and Mahwah, say their predominantly white departments are simply reflective of their communities. Other chiefs say they have a tough time getting minorities to interview for openings, much less hiring them. Few deny that having cops like Marte on the beat is an asset.
Saudino, who is also Emerson’s chief, said he held 44 interviews for his last opening. “I think three of the 44 were minorities,” he said.
Englewood, though, has hired blacks, Hispanics and Asians for years, Police Chief Arthur O’Keefe said. He was sworn in as a police officer in 1971, four years after a race riot pitted mostly young black men against the police. But O’Keefe says the riot wasn’t the only factor in the department’s diversity — which started in the ‘70s.
“I think Englewood, quite frankly, is the great American experiment at work,” O’Keefe said, referring in part to the city’s spirited local politics. “I think you need a police department that reflects that activism and interest.”
But other chiefs say there aren’t enough qualified candidates or they hire candidates who do well on civil service tests, regardless of race. Many search far outside county borders for qualified minorities. Wayne police Capt. Martin Laurence said his department’s hiring practices changed significantly when a consent decree was issued in the mid-‘90s. That order, which followed complaints by local minority groups, broadened the recruiting pool to surrounding counties.
“We’ve wound up with significantly more officers who are not from Wayne,” Laurence said. “The advantages are, obviously, you get a more diverse group, but the disadvantages are that you get people who don’t know the town.”
In Montvale, where all 18 officers are Caucasian, Police Chief Jeremy Abrams recently allowed job candidates to use military service as a substitute for college work. Abrams, a military veteran, has said that the move would attract officers better suited for the department because they’re accustomed to working in a paramilitary organization. Montvale Borough Council President Timothy Lane sees another benefit.
“This might also attract some candidates that aren’t, you know, white males,” Lane said at a June council meeting.
Profiling concern
And then there’s racial profiling, another concern of minority groups. The 1998 shooting of four unarmed black men by the New Jersey State Police led to years of federal oversight of that agency. While no town departments have been involved in a similar incident, minorities have questioned whether they’re hassled by police. In July, the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey filed complaints, asking departments in Fort Lee, Cliffside Park and Elmwood Park to investigate whether minorities were disproportionately stopped in traffic.
No matter the reason, state numbers indicate minorities are arrested at higher rates than whites. African-Americans and Hispanics were each involved in some 22 percent of Bergen arrests in 2008, the last year statistics are available.
“We arrest whoever needs to be arrested, regardless of race, color or ethnicity,” Saudino said when asked how the large numbers of white officers affect arrest rates.
Federal intervention
Lawsuits in recent years have focused more on hiring rather than potentially improper arrests. A suit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in January, for example, alleged widespread discrimination in a sergeant exam used for promotions. That suit, still in litigation, accuses nearly two dozen departments in New Jersey — mostly large ones and including Paterson — of discrimination because the sergeant exam resulted in lower scores for African-Americans and Hispanics.
Marte, 45, said his path to becoming an Englewood officer was only slightly obstructed. A former corporate fitness trainer, he moved to Indiana and planned on becoming a state trooper. But after he returned to the East Coast to care for his ailing mother, the Englewood job opened and he applied, later developing into what O’Keefe called a “good street cop.”
“When the EMT doesn’t speak Spanish, I can translate,” Marte said, referring to medical calls that he has responded to. “It’s kind of crucial.”
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Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office For Refusing Full Cooperat

Published September 3, 2010

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, September 2, 2010
Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office For Refusing Full Cooperation With Title VI Investigation
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department filed a lawsuit today against the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), Maricopa County, and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for refusing full cooperation with the department’s investigation of alleged national origin discrimination in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Title VI prohibits discrimination in programs that receive federal funds, and also requires grant recipients to cooperate with investigations of discrimination by providing access to documents, facilities and staff.  MCSO signed contractual assurance agreements as a condition of receiving federal funds, and promised that it would cooperate with investigations of alleged discrimination.

The department filed today’s lawsuit after exhausting all cooperative measures to gain access to MCSO’s documents and facilities, as part of the department’s investigation of alleged discrimination in MCSO’s police practices and jail operations.  Since March 2009, the department has attempted to secure voluntary compliance with the department’s investigation.  MCSO’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation makes it an extreme outlier and the department is unaware of any other police department or sheriff’s office that has refused to cooperate in the last 30 years.

“The actions of the sheriff’s office are unprecedented.  It is unfortunate that the department was forced to resort to litigation to gain access to public documents and facilities,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

The department’s investigation of MCSO concerns alleged discrimination against Hispanics, in violation of the prohibition on national origin discrimination in Title VI; the pattern or practice provisions of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968; and the pattern or practice provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.  Title VI prohibits discrimination in federally assisted programs on the ground of race, color, or national origin.

The department’s investigation remains open and ongoing.  For more information on the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, please visit http://www.justice.gov/crt.

United States of America v. Maricopa County, Arizona (PDF)