MONTGOMERY, Ala. — After more than a year of protests in a small north Alabama city over the fatal police shooting of a Black man outside his home, a redacted and highly anticipated third-party investigation found that the local police department often made improper arrests and failed to thoroughly investigate civilian complaints.
A study released on Thursday, which is 43 pages long, shows that the Decatur Police Department frequently charged people with disorderly conduct and obstruction without good reason. It also found that the department did not properly investigate complaints from citizens, including those related to the use of force.
“The report says there are important areas that need attention.” “Times when DPD officers show kindness and understanding can sometimes be overlooked because of their unprofessional behavior or lack of empathy.”
Decatur has around 60,000 people living in it, based on the U.S. Census Bureau, and it’s about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away from Huntsville, Alabama.
The report mentions several times when officers wrongly arrested someone for disorderly conduct and wrote different details in their arrest report than what the body-camera video showed.
Sometimes, officers arrested people just for swearing, according to the story.
The report suggests that DPD give more training to officers about free speech to protect citizens’ rights.
The Decatur City Council unanimously voted to hire Green Research and Technology to perform an independent third-party review of the department after the fatal shooting of a Black man outside his own home in 2023 sparked frequent protests across the city.
The study looked at two years of citizen complaints about the department, more than 300 hours of body camera videos, and over 100 interviews with people from the Decatur community as well as police department staff.
The report states that the study by an outside party was restricted due to a broken system for dealing with complaints from civilians. During internal reviews, the department found that some policy violations were not often recorded. This included the wrong use of restraints on inmates and not turning on body cameras.
Some videos were misfiled and deleted, the report adds, which stopped the third-party investigators from “thoroughly” looking into all complaints made by members of the community.
Decatur Police Chief Todd Pinion defended his department in a press conference on Thursday just hours after he read the redacted report for the first time.
“There are times when we could have made better choices.” Pinion said he thinks these are isolated cases and do not represent the behavior of our cops or the department as a whole.
Pinion said that the possibly concerning charges mentioned in the report are just a small part of the total charges his department has filed in the last year. The chief said he was open to more training for his cops and would look over the suggestions in the report.
The city’s lawyer said that all details about particular police encounters in the report were removed to protect the city and people’s privacy.
“It has been our position throughout that we do not desire to impact any civil, personnel or criminal proceedings outside that particular forum,” city attorney Herman Marks wrote in an email.
Steve Perkins, 39, was shot and killed by police on September 29, 2023, while officers from the Decatur Police Department were helping a tow truck driver who was trying to take his truck back. Former police officer Mac Bailey Marquette has been charged with murder and will have his trial in April.
As tensions mounted between law enforcement and protesters along the small city’s streets and at volatile city council meetings, the report says that officers “were growing exhausted and becoming emotionally overwhelmed.” Body-camera video showed police bothering and arresting protesters instead of interacting with them in a professional way.
A video from a neighbor’s home security camera showed the deadly shooting, and it was shared by WAFF. An cop shouts, “Police, get on the ground,” and almost immediately there is a burst of gunfire. The police have not shared the body-camera video of the incident.
The police department first reported that Perkins faced the officers with a gun and did not follow their instructions to drop it. The department later stated that this was wrong and that no such order was issued.
Protesters said that Marquette did not allow Perkins a chance to reply.
Marquette’s lawyers claimed he shot his gun because Perkins came out of his house quickly and was aiming a gun with a flashlight on it at the tow-truck driver. This was mentioned in a written request for a hearing about immunity made in early January.
Marquette’s defense lawyers stated that their client’s actions are protected by the “stand your ground” law, which is supported by recent rulings from Alabama’s appeal courts.
“In fear for his life and the lives of others, the defendant fired his duty weapon to eliminate the deadly threat to himself, his fellow officers, and the tow-truck driver,” defense lawyers wrote.
Alabama Circuit Judge Charles Elliot will hold a hearing on that move on March 25.
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