Justice Department To Review San Francisco Police

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee asked for a federal investigation following the death of a young black man who was shot and killed by police officers.

The investigation in San Francisco will be carried out by the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, which will make its findings and recommendations public.

The announcement of the review – which did not refer specifically to the Woods case – comes 2 days after hundreds of protesters marched in the city to demand the resignation of its police chief Greg Suhr. The police department’s participation is voluntary, though chief Greg Suhr says he and his officers will cooperate fully. The investigation will take two years, with reports issued every six months. The review was initiated [AP report] in the aftermath of the filmed shooting of Mario Woods, an African American male, by San Francisco policemen in December. That decision is the result of a request by Mayor Ed Lee in the aftermath of the questionable police shooting of Mario Woods, who lived in the city’s Bayview District.

The civil rights division can force departments into court-monitored legal settlements if it finds constitutional violations like it did recently in Cleveland and Ferguson, Missouri. Louis criminal justice professor David Klinger.

The investigation will seek to evaluate the San Francisco Police Department’s policies, practices and how it holds officers accountable, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The review follows pressure from civil rights groups to investigate the death of Mario Woods at the hands of police.

Today, federal officials said they will step in to take a look at SFPD from top to bottom, everything from officer training and use of force, to discipline and misconduct. So far, the mayor has stood behind the chief, who says he has no plans to resign.

Saying video of the shooting had “shocked the community”, the board added, “Police Department policies and practices should not just meet constitutional standards but exceed them”. Suhr said the shaken trust prompted him to call on the DOJ to launch its review.

Davis said his office would publicly disclose if officials run into obstacles during their review.

In May last year, the Justice Department opened a similar investigation into Baltimore’s police force following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, a black man whose spine was snapped while he was transported in the back of a police van.

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