A new report from the federal government has found indications of bias and a tendency toward violence against minorities within the San Fransisco Police Department.
The review by the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services was released on Wednesday at a press conference.
The findings are not binding on the department, however, since it has already entered into an agreement with DOJ to try and fix the problems raised in the report.
The San Francisco Police Department “has significant deficiencies […] including lack of accountability and outdated use of force policies,” the report said.
DOJ issued 272 recommendations in the 400-plus page report to reform the department “from top to bottom,” including better investigations into police-involved shootings.
The review was spurned in part as response to the shooting death of Mario Woods, a 26-year-old black man who was shot 20 times by five SFPD officers in December. A video captured his death and protests broke out around the city, but no one has been held accountable for Woods’ death, and the five officers who shot him are still employed.
Following the shooting, nine pages of racist text messages between three SFPD officers were released. Police Chief Gregory Suhr eventually resigned in May following the shooting death, the text messages and the fatal shooting of a black woman following a short police chase.
Some key findings in the report include:
- Nine out of 11 times that deadly force was used between 2013 and 2016 involved minorities.
- Black drivers were “were disproportionately stopped compared to their representation in the driving population.”
- Hispanic drivers were also disproportionately stopped, and both were also “less likely to be found with contraband than white drivers.”
- The SFPD did not support internal investigations, and the culture in the department is “hostile and in some cases detrimental” to accountability.
