Federal investigators named an outside monitor yesterday to oversee the Detroit Police Department for at least five years. The move follows a 30-month investigation that turned up many problems, including the improper use of deadly force.
The Justice Department conducted the review after protests over several police shootings.
Sheryl L. Robinson of the security consulting firm Kroll Associates - whose chief executive, Michael Cherkasky, similarly oversees the Los Angeles Police Department - will help ensure that the department complies with a two-part consent decree crafted by the Justice Department and agreed to by the city.
One part of the decree pertains to police officers' use of force, as well as justifications for arrest and detention; the second part is aimed at improving jail conditions. Detroit is the latest in a line of cities whose police departments have come under federal supervision in recent years.
The Justice Department began investigating police procedures in Detroit in 2000 following an outcry over several police shootings. In one case, an off-duty officer shot and badly wounded a learning-disabled man who mistakenly opened the officer's car door. In another incident, an officer shot in the back a 14-year-old carrying a gun, killing him, and in another case an officer shot a teen in the face, wounding him, after mistaking the boy's chili fries for a gun.
In its probe, the Justice Department found that Detroit's 4,200 officers were often poorly trained and some habitually made false arrests or detained people illegally.
Under the agreement, which can be enforced by federal courts, the department will rework its rules for arresting and detaining people, limit its use of force and make it easier for civilians to file complaints against officers.
Eric Slater writes for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.
