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| NEWS > 22 October 2008 |
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Hispanic Woman Accuses Police
A Manassas Park woman who was bloodied and hospitalized Monday after, police allege, she resisted arrest during a traffic stop said yesterday that she was treated "like an animal" by police because she is Hispanic and does not speak English.
Agueda M. Dominguez, 38, said she was sprayed in the face with a chemical agent and beaten by a Manassas Park police officer after refusing to sign a citation that she couldn't read. Police said an internal investigation is underway.
"I want them to stop treating us like animals. We're people," said Dominguez, speaking in Spanish to tel... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Pi
22 October 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Pittsburgh Police Department,
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Council asked for more monitor
Six people who spoke at a hearing Tuesday asked City Council to consider legislation making it easier to monitor police conduct and investigate allegations of brutality.
The speakers suggested that council codify portions of a 1997 consent decree, an agreement between the police department and the federal government. For eight years it required the department to release information such as the races or ages of people officers come in contact with and which officers receive the most complaints.
"Nobody is watching over the police department now, and nobody is monitoring their performance," said Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizens Police Review Board, an independent agency that investigates misconduct complaints. "This may lead to problems down the road."
Police Chief Nathan Harper said most regulations and procedures begun under the decree remain in effect. A requirement to rotate officers' locations after five years was eliminated, though, when manpower decreased and Act 111 arbitration adopted a few years ago eliminated an "integrity squad" that tested officers, he said.
"We continuously look at our policies and procedures, our guidelines, and we try to improve the inner workings of the department," Harper said. He said he plans to meet with council members privately in November, to explain the department's operating procedures.
But Harper said he would not publicly release officers' performance evaluations, because the information is personal.
"They are scrutinized by the command staff," he said.
Tim Stevens, longtime community activist and former president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP, urged council to consider pushing for police department accreditation from a state or national entity.
"We need to move forward with both of these actions so we can improve the trust between the community and police," Stevens said.
Harper said a lieutenant and sergeant are working to secure the department state accreditation because the requirements for national accreditation could cost the city as much as $2 million. "We'll be able to meet all the requirements for state accreditation by the end of February or beginning of March," Harper said.
The consent decree stemmed from a federal lawsuit filed in 1996 by the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP on behalf of 66 people, several community groups and the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit alleged that city police routinely abused citizens.
An audit released in August by Controller Michael Lamb showed that complaints of police misconduct fell from 219 in 2006 to 152 in 2007. Among officers with complaints filed against them, 92 percent have had four or fewer complaints in a three-year period, the audit showed.
The complaints were filed with and investigated by the city's Office of Municipal Investigations, which handles complaints about misconduct by police and other public employees.
Council President Doug Shields and Councilmen Bruce Kraus and Bill Peduto asked Pittinger to forward them information about the codifying and accreditation processes, along with the review board's recommendations for each.
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