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Police probing police absolve themselves |
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Internal review found only one case in 1,400 was excessive Seven of 10 arrested by force are black
However, the continuing controversy over the death of a mentally ill black man cornered by more than a dozen police Feb. 23 has exacerbated tensions between blacks and police. Many questions have been left unanswered.
This series provides context and underlying facts about the police use of force, and it suggests where Cincinnati should go next in attempting to resolve an agonizing issue.
- Lawrence K. Beaupre, editor
The cops did nothing wrong.
Only once in more than 1,400 cases involving police use of force and/or injuries to individuals arrested by police in 1995 and 1996 did police determine that excessive force was used, an Enquirer investigation found.
Yet in the files of the Cincinnati Police Division's Internal Investigation Section are numerous cases that raise serious questions about the reliability of those findings and the department's ability to police itself.
Cincinnati NAACP President Milton Hinton said the newspaper's findings support a widespread community perception that police internal investigations cannot be trusted.
"There is a great and pervasive mistrust of the police department in terms of just everyday citizen interaction," Mr. Hinton said, "and it is enhanced when it is expected that they are going to fairly and objectively investigate misbehavior among themselves" and they do not.
The Enquirer's investigation, launched in the aftermath of February's fatal shooting of Lorenzo Collins, revealed that seven of every 10 individuals injured in police confrontations or subjected to use of force by Cincinnati police officers during the two-year period were African-American.
Although the figures mirror those of Cincinnati's annual arrest rates ‹ in which about 70 percent of those arrested are African-American ‹ they nonetheless underscore a long-held and growing perception in the city's black community that the city's predominantly white police force frequently mistreats African-Americans.
"That which we knew . . . is now substantiated by the data," said Mr. Hinton.
"What we find real often is that people associate any use of force with excessive use of force," said Capt. Alan Matthews, who has headed the department's Internal Investigation Section since late last year.
"It may seem like a fine line, but the fact is our use-of-force policy has been developed based on case law, criminal and civil laws. Those are the standards."
Yet in several cases, The Enquirer found, accounts of police brutality by eyewitnesses - some of whom were law enforcement authorities - were dismissed by police investigators.
Even when police determined in some cases that officers used excessive force or took unwarranted action, their findings later were overruled by other Cincinnati Police Division officials or the internal investigation unit.
The Enquirer's examination - based in part on a computer-assisted analysis of 1,396 use-of-force and injury reports and a review of 127 internal investigation cases from 1995 and 1996 - also found:
Although the Hamilton County prosecutor cleared officers of any wrongdoing, black community leaders have rallied several times to protest the shooting. In early June, police officers and their families showed up at City Hall to show support for one of the officers involved, Douglas Depodesta.
Cincinnati police investigators exonerated the officers involved in the arrest of then 18-year-old Mr. Crosby, who is African-American. But a probe by OCCI - the watchdog agency that is independent of the police division - determined that police used excessive force and made inaccurate statements about the case.
Two officers were initially disciplined, but they appealed their 40-hour suspensions and an independent arbitrator set them aside.
Those cases and others that black community leaders say involved excessive force by police have led them to demand changes. The status quo, they say, is not acceptable.
"It is very difficult for black folks, no matter their socioeconomic status, to have a lot of confidence that they will be treated equally under the law by the police division," Mr. Hinton said.
In fairness to police, use of force and injuries sustained during police confrontations occur in only about 2 percent of all arrests made each year in Cincinnati. Most arrests require no force, and the majority of those that do involve the spraying of chemical irritant - the police department's preferred weapon of force.
Also, use of force - and even deadly force - is unavoidable by police in certain situations. Nearly every day, someone in Cincinnati resists arrest vigorously and violently. Police are trained to meet force with force, even if it means injuring or killing a suspect.
"Violence in any form is ugly. It is repulsive. When it stops being that, then that generates another concern," Capt. Matthews said. "So there is no way to make these things look pretty, and it's hard to accept them from a humanistic point of view. You really have to relegate it to an objective review and comparison of standards."
In the early morning hours of Sept. 20, 1996, Cincinnatian Ryan Crane drunkenly celebrated his 22nd birthday and attempted to leave a bar parking lot. When he did, Cincinnati police arrested him for driving under the influence of alcohol and reckless driving.
According to two witnesses - Hamilton County Sheriff's Sgt. David Turner and Corrections Officer Jerome Richmond - Cincinnati Police Officer Sonny Kim kneed Mr. Crane in the genitals as he exited a holding cell. The blow was so severe it caused Mr. Crane, who was already handcuffed, to double over in pain, the witnesses said.
The two witnesses immediately reported the physical abuse to a superior, who then referred it to the Cincinnati Police Division.
In a written report, internal investigators concluded Officer Kim used excessive force, failed to file a use-of-force report, and was not truthful with them. So Officer Kim was sent to a predisciplinary hearing.
That's where Capt. David Stanley, communications section commander, who was hearing officer on the case, stepped in. He overturned the investigators' findings, noting "on one hand there where two jail guards who claim they saw the groin strike, on the other hand there were two Cincinnati police officers who say it never happened."
Capt. Stanley noted that during the hearing, Officer Kim "looked directly in my eyes as he told his story. His body language indicated openness and honesty. He gave me no reason to doubt his statements."
Police Chief Michael Snowden reviewed the hearing officer's decision and, although he disagreed with it, declined to overrule it.
Though technically permitted to do so, Chief Snowden said that would be tantamount to "tampering with the hearing process."
"I might as well do every hearing myself," he said.
Similarly, an initial review by Capt. Richard Janke of the Jan. 27, 1996, arrest of 14-year-old Michael Steele concluded the "severity" of one officer's actions appeared "unreasonable."
The officer, Patrick Knight, gave contradictory taped statements about what transpired during the Price Hill youth's arrest.
In his first statement, the officer stated: "I started bouncing his head off the concrete." He also admitted striking the boy three times in the head with his knee.
Later, Officer Knight changed his story: It "wasn't a bounce or a dribbling," but a single push to get the youth's head down, he said.
There were other discrepancies in the investigation. The initial use-of-force report filed the day after the confrontation stated that 18-year-old witness Brian Stewart "observed no blows struck by the officers or Mr. Steele."
Mr. Stewart, when contacted by The Enquirer, said the report was untrue.
"I clearly stated in court that I saw (Officer Knight) come down with his knee into Mike's side and throw his head into the sidewalk," Mr. Stewart said.
"The male cop came over, picked Mike up by the throat and threw him towards the concrete. First, he slammed his head against the concrete a couple of times and then he kneed him in the ribs."
In the end, police who reviewed the case concluded that Officer Knight's actions were reasonable. The only problems, they said, were how supervisors conducted the original use-of-force probe and the fact that another officer at the scene, Angela Smith, did not have probable cause to arrest Mr. Steele for disorderly conduct.
Since then, Officer Knight has found himself embroiled in more controversy. In August, he was indicted on charges of sexual battery and bribery for allegedly telling wanted women he would ignore their arrest warrants for sexual favors. Later fired, he awaits trial.
African-Americans constitute 70 percent of those arrested each year in the city. The same figure holds for those injured in police confrontations or subjected to use of force in the past two years, according to The Enquirer's analysis. And in 80 percent of the cases in which African-Americans were sprayed with chemical irritant, the officers involved were white.
Those figures compare with the police force, which is about 25 percent African-American, and the community, which is about 38 percent African-American.
Police officials say the figures, while troublesome, are largely beyond their control.
"It's not just a police issue. We just make arrests. We don't pick who we arrest," said Lt. Col. Theodore Schoch, an assistant chief.
"There are many issues," he said. "There's socioeconomic, demographic issues, there's issues that the police department can work with and help deal with, but they've never been responsible for it and they shouldn't be held responsible for them now."
Said the NAACP's Mr. Hinton of that response: "That is a frightening statement coming from a high official in the police division. . . . It doesn't seem to convey an understanding of the realities that take place across the country and have been acknowledged.
"The evidence is there that race plays a factor in the numbers of interactions with the police. That's not theoretical. That's not hypothetical. That's reality."
He added: "I doubt there are many African-American men in particular . . . of any socioeconomic level that have not had an unpleasant encounter with a police man or men. I doubt there is one."
The Enquirer interviewed several African-Americans who claim they were victims of excessive force - usually at the hands of white officers.
Take, for example, the story of Milan Crawford: The official police version was that his injuries - 10 stitches to one eye, eight to the other, and a concussion - came as he fled from police on foot in August 1996. He apparently fell face first near a pipe and rock in a wooded area, police said.
Mr. Crawford, 33, remembers driving his niece's black BMW and being detained by police after he was spotted at a United Dairy Farmers store in South Fairmont while getting gas. The officer discovered an outstanding warrant on him when checking his identification.
The officer said Mr. Crawford hit him in the chest and fled on foot after being told he was under arrest. Mr. Crawford argues that he used a celluar phone to call his parents to tell them he was being harassed.
When the family arrived at the UDF minutes later, they found Crawford in handcuffs and bleeding.
"The only thing I remember is when they started hitting me with those sticks," Mr. Crawford said. "Both my eyes were split open. I had stitches in both my eyes. I had a concussion. I was messed up and ain't no way I could have fell and had injuries like that."
There were no witnesses, police said, although there are clerks working at UDF around the clock. There was also a cab driver at the scene. After an investigation, police concluded the complaint was unsubstantiated because of the lack of independent witnesses.
There is no indication that investigators ever talked with the store clerks or cab driver. The Crawford family said they were hesistant to talk with internal investigators.
The arresting officer of record was Terry McGuffey, who was reprimanded in 1995 for failing to report an
incident two years earlier in which a handcuffed black man suffered broken ribs and other injuries at the hands and feet of police. Police - including three who were suspended from the job - were accused of trying to cover up the incident.
Mr. Crawford said he feels fortunate he wasn't killed like Lorenzo Collins.
"It's kind of scary, even thinking about things like that," he said. "I'm thinking they could have taken me out like that. I think about this every day, every day when I look in the mirrors."
Although he was initially charged with assault on police and resisting arrest, a grand jury threw out the assault charge. He won his resisting arrest case in court.
The Enquirer found there were no witnesses or only police witnesses in nearly two-thirds of the cases in which individuals were injured in police confrontations or were subjected to force.
In form letters sent to people who have alleged excessive force or other police wrongdoing - but where there are no independent witnesses - the police department states: "Without any disinterested, third party witnesses, this allegation is one of accusation/denial. As such, it will be closed accordingly."
While that would seem reasonable when no third-party witnesses can be found, it does not explain why police appeared to turn a deaf ear to some independent witnesses of alleged police brutality. In Officer Sonny Kim's case, the witnesses were law enforcement authorities.
In the case of Alton Miles, the witness was a neighbor.
In October 1995, police mistook Mr. Miles for another black man wanted in a string of robberies. They chased him into his apartment building on Reading Road in Avondale where, according to police, he punched them several times - necessitating a use of force.
But Mr. Miles, who was then 18 and is now serving a 6-month sentence in Noble Correctional Institution in Caldwell, Ohio, for an unrelated weapons possession conviction, said he never resisted.
"I resisted by running, but I didn't put up no battle against them."
Instead, he said, officers cornered him, sprayed chemical irritant on him, put him on the ground and began to beat him. The beating went on for 15 minutes, he said.
"They were constantly kicking me in the groin," he said, noting that later, at University Hospital, there was blood in his urine.
During the beating, a neighbor watched in horror.
Tanya Gross, who also lived in the building, heard a disturbance in the hallway. Opening her door, she looked
down the hall and saw several police officers on top of Mr. Miles, whom she did not know well.
She stood there for several moments, wondering how long they would continue if they thought no one was watching.
"But I realized they were going to keep on doing this," she said. "And they acted like they were having fun" as they punched him, kicked him and struck him with a billy club.
Finally she screamed: "You don't have to do him like that."
The officers' response: "You didn't see what he did to us."
At one point, she said, "one officer took his billy club and almost rammed it up the boy's behind. It was awful. I couldn't sleep for days thinking about it."
Police investigators did return later to ask her what she witnessed. But "that was the last I ever heard of it," she said.
Mr. Miles eventually pleaded guilty to assault on police officers, a deal he maintains he cut because prosecutors offered a one-year sentence that would run concurrent with an unrelated one-year drug sentence.
Beyond what happened that night to Mr. Miles, cases like it have ramifications far beyond the momentary use of force, according to Ms. Gross.
"People don't understand why (African-Americans) are afraid of police. This is why we are afraid," she said.
"In our neighborhoods, we need the police . . . to be on our side. But in our neighborhoods, we say, 'Why call the police?' We all know that police brutality is an everyday thing here."
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