Justice Department says Warren Police Department has made ‘significant progress’

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

The U.S, Justice Department says the Warren Police Department “made significant progress” in the past year toward eliminating the type of unconstitutional policing that the federal government found while investigating the department over the past decade.

Especially encouraging, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 21 letter to the city, is the attitude of the police department toward the task.

“We appreciate the collaborative and accommodating spirit evinced by the city and police department leaders, administrators, staff members and officers,” the letter said.

It accompanied a 34-page chart listing 47 areas spelled out in the consent agreement the city signed with the Justice Department in 2012 that need to be corrected before the police department comes into compliance.

The department is now in “substantial compliance” in 29 of 47 areas and in “partial compliance” in the other 18. During 2013, the department improved in 11 areas and slipped back in one.

Eric Merkel, Warren police chief, said he expects the department to be in substantial compliance on all 47 areas by this time next year.

If that happens, the department will still need to submit use-of-force reports and other data to the Justice Department for two more years before it will be released from the special requirements of the consent agreement.

Of the areas that are not in compliance, Merkel said several will be fixed with just a few words changed in the citizen-complaint policy.

Other weaknesses cited relate to the review by police captains of reports written by patrol officers about use of force against citizens. But the captain overseeing patrol officers was reassigned in the spring and later retired, Merkel noted.

The chart says “captains, like other reviewing supervisors, still too often fail to identify and address deficiencies and discrepancies between multiple accounts” included in the information supplied regarding use of force.

The Justice Department began to scrutinize the department in 2003 when members of the community complained of harassment by some officers in the department, including improper strip searches and excessive force.

The chart says it is commendable that the department’s citizen-complaint form is available online, in the police department and elsewhere in the city. It was enhanced in 2014 by having a contact number a resident can call and a “What Happens Next” section.

Merkel said a committee consisting of police administrators and an assistant law director reviews all use-of-force reports.

Software tracks the number of times various types of force is used. It alerts police supervisors whenever an officer gets close to or surpasses benchmarks for use-of-force, citizen complaints or other criteria.

Capt. Robert Massucci said the comprehensive tracking makes it possible for supervisors from top to bottom to be aware of how well each officer is doing, instead of the tendency for an officer’s immediate supervisor to keep that information to himself or herself.

“It makes the officer more aware of his actions,” Lt. Dan Mason, internal affairs officer, said of having more of the actions documented.

Such tracking can be a benefit to officers in that such tracking makes it possible for small problems to be corrected before they turn into a disciplinary matter. “It can save a person’s career,” Massucci said.

Each officer also spends about 40 hours per year in training.

Citizen complaints filed against the department have fallen in the last four years — 59 in 2010, 35 in 2012, 29 in 2013 and 24 in 2014.