Federal scrutiny missing from Las Vegas police shootings
When Miami police shot and killed eight people in 16 months, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated.
When Portland, Ore., police shot and killed five people over 18 months, there was a federal investigation.
Las Vegas police have shot 15 people dead in the past 18 months.
There is no federal investigation.
In Miami and Portland, the deaths touched off loud calls for federal scrutiny from advocacy groups, city officials and members of Congress alike.
In Las Vegas, the shootings have not sparked the same reaction.
Even after a Review-Journal investigation found Metropolitan Police Department shootings have risen while authorities are reluctant to hold cops accountable, local civil rights groups are taking a wait-and-see approach.
"I do not think that a DOJ investigation is a bad idea at all," said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. "I think that — and maybe wrongfully — when I hear Metro saying that they really are interested in changes, I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt that they really mean what they say, and give them the opportunity to do that before calling for a DOJ investigation."
The NAACP is "strongly considering" asking the Justice Department to open separate investigations — one into the department policies and practices, and separate criminal probes into last year’s high-profile killings of Trevon Cole and Erik Scott, said Richard Boulware, a federal public defender and first vice president of the organization.
Local officials are saying little or nothing. A department spokeswoman said Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie "has no plans" to ask federal authorities to look into the department.
When asked for comment for this article, the offices of Las Vegas FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Favreau and U.S. Attorney for Nevada Daniel Bogden referred to their week-old joint statement that they "carefully reviewed" the newspaper’s series and that they look into each police use of force.
A Justice Department representative in Washington, D.C., said the agency is aware of the newspaper series, but did not provide additional comment.
National experts, after reading the newspaper’s series, said outside intervention would be healthy for the Las Vegas police, and that federal authorities should open an investigation.
"I think that would be a good thing," said Samuel Walker, a university professor and expert on police accountability. "I think the city officials and the sheriff need to wake up to that."
PARALLELS WITH VEGAS
A Justice Department civil rights investigation can be either criminal or civil.
The criminal track focuses on individual incidents of civil rights violations by police acting "under color of law." These investigations can result in criminal charges against officers, such as the New Orleans cops who were charged criminally after shooting civilians in the turmoil following Hurricane Katrina.
The civil track targets institutional problems within a police department. Known as a "pattern or practice" investigation, they can lead to requirements that an agency change policies, procedures and training to prevent systemic racial profiling, excessive force and other civil rights abuses.
Many pattern or practice investigations can cover a broad spectrum of issues, though two ongoing investigations focus on the use of deadly force.
In June, the Justice Department opened an investigation of the Portland, Ore., police, citing a "significant" rise in shootings, especially those involving mentally ill people.
The incident that sparked calls for an investigation came in January 2010, when police killed an unarmed black man distraught over his brother’s death. A month later, Portland’s mayor and police commissioner, along with a U.S. senator and a congressman, asked for a federal investigation.
Last month, the Justice Department opened a "pattern or practice" investigation in Miami, where police have shot and killed eight people, most of them black, in 16 months. The NAACP, ACLU, a congresswoman and the mayor of Miami asked for the probe.
Other federal investigations have touched on the kind of problems identified in the Review-Journal series.
For example, the recently concluded investigation of the New Orleans Police Department found "clear and systemic problems" with officers using deadly force. Despite questionable shootings, the police department itself hadn’t found that an officer had violated policy in at least six years, and police officials recalled only one out-of-policy finding before then, according to a DOJ report.
In Las Vegas, the Metropolitan Police Use of Force Review Board has cleared all but four officers in cases since 2001, for a 98.8 percent clearance rate.
NATIONAL TREND
Dozens of police departments have come under Justice Department scrutiny since 1994, when "pattern or practice" reviews were first authorized by Congress. They include Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Miami.
The Justice Department’s Washington, D.C.-based Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, handles those investigations, which can be prompted many ways.
In some cases an advocacy group such as the ACLU has written the Department of Justice with a list of problematic cases, as happened last year in Newark, N.J.
Sometimes city officials will call for an investigation, which happened in Seattle and Portland. In rare cases, such as in 1999 in Washington, D.C., the police chief will invite federal investigators in.
But just asking for an investigation doesn’t mean one will happen. The ACLU of Colorado in May asked for a Justice Department investigation of excessive force by Denver police. So far, no investigation has been announced.
Federal investigations can end in a number of ways. Investigators could leave without taking action if they find no widespread problems or if they’re satisfied the police agency is addressing any problems. They can make recommendations or try to reach a legal settlement with the agency that requires specific changes. They can also sue to force a department to implement change .
LOCAL INVESTIGATIONS
Federal authorities have taken strong action in Las Vegas in the past.
In 1985 the Justice Department sued the Metropolitan Police, alleging racial and gender discrimination. The resulting consent decree forced changes in procedures for hiring and promotion.
A 1978 lawsuit was filed by inmates over living conditions at the county jail. The federal court consent decree prompted construction of the Clark County Detention Center. In 1997, a Justice Department investigation found the new jail was unsafe, and the department made changes.
But when it comes to on-duty use of force by police, federal authorities have done little. After a Clark County grand jury declined to indict three officers who entered an apartment without a warrant and choked a man to death in 1990, the Nevada attorney general’s office asked federal authorities to pick up the case. They refused. The state charged the officers, but a jury did not convict.
Local lawyers and the ACLU say federal authorities have responded to requests for reviews of specific incidents involving use of force, though none have ever resulted in charges.
Cal Potter, a Las Vegas lawyer who often takes on cases against Las Vegas police, said he has referred troubling cases to the local FBI and investigators in Washington at least a half-dozen times in the past 30 years. While some have resulted in action, "there just isn’t an interest," Potter said.
Local lawyer Brent Bryson said he has been contacted "several times" by the FBI and Justice Department about alleged police abuse, but nothing came of the contact.
"We need them to come in and take a look, and we need the sheriff to take a serious look. That’s truly it," he said.
The FBI did investigate the 2006 death of Swuave Lopez, a handcuffed 17-year-old murder suspect shot while running away from two Las Vegas police officers. But the federal agency took no action.
During the Review-Journal’s yearlong investigation into police shootings, the newspaper found that Las Vegas police are slow to weed out problem officers or adopt policies to protect both its officers and the community they serve. It found that blacks make up less than 10 percent of Clark County’s population, but they account for half of all Las Vegas police shootings of unarmed subjects and a third of all people shot at by the department. Mentally ill or suicidal people account for one in five shooting subjects since 2003, when the department created a program to help officers deal with those people.
Of the 33 unarmed people shot at by Las Vegas police since 1990, seven were during a recent 16-month period.
And the number of fatal shootings has risen sharply. Between 1990 and 2000, Las Vegas police shot and killed 34 people. Since then, they’ve killed 81, including a record 11 this year.
EXPERTS SAY REVIEW IS NEEDED
Lou Reiter is a retired Los Angeles police commander who has worked as a consultant on both sides of Justice Department "patterns or practice" investigations. When asked whether a federal investigation of Las Vegas police is needed, he said, "It would be healthy for an organization. You want that openness, and I think the thing that’s missing is the transparency on shootings."
Other nationally known experts on police use of force said much the same.
Federal investigations help "develop change and improve the professional standards of law enforcement, and I think for the most part they’ve done that," said Steve Rothlein, who retired in 2005 as second-in-command of the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Some law enforcement leaders embrace the oversight and help create lasting change in their organizations, Rothlein said, while others resist opening their agencies to outside scrutiny, fearing the exposure of internal problems.
The latter approach only prolongs what can be a very costly process, he said.
Federal oversight doesn’t always work. The New Orleans police department implemented many changes under Justice Department watch about a decade ago, but slid back into old habits after the reform-minded police chief retired.
Gillespie is looking to make some changes. He is reaching out to minority and civil rights groups about reforming the use of force review board and police shooting investigations. But he is resistant to reforms such as having an independent monitor who could improve public accountability.
Eugene O’Donnell, a law and police science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said federal intervention isn’t always needed to improve a police department.
"The police themselves can lead on this, even without political pressure or threats of federal intervention," he said in an email. "It would be sad indeed if LV’s PD did not see this."
Review-Journal correspondent Alan Maimon contributed to this report. Contact Brian Haynes at bhaynes@review journal.com or 702-383-0281. Contact Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.
• DEADLY FORCE: When Las Vegas police shoot, and kill
