Euclid Police Department receives state grant to buy body cameras department-wide

Police Brutality

Governor Mike DeWine’s office awarded nearly 5 million dollars in grant funds to police departments throughout the state. The Euclid Police Department is a recipient of $120,000 of those funds.

Right now, Euclid police have an optional body camera policy. Officers have to buy the cameras on their own, a price that can average out to about $1,000.

Out of the about 90 staff members within the department, only about a dozen have body cameras.

“Officers don’t want to be forced into such a large expense on their own part. They are quite expensive and the maintenance and the storage fees are expensive, but the city decided they’d make it a priority and they’d fund this new project,” said Capt. Mitch Houser.

Houser said, by and large, body cameras are something the officers support.

In September of 2021, the Euclid City Council approved the purchasing of body cameras and updating dash cameras for the entire department. It’s a project that would cost more than $400,000.

Suit: Fairfax Police Officers Protected Sex Trafficking Ring

Sexual Abuse

A federal lawsuit filed by a prominent civil rights attorney alleges that police officers in Fairfax County protected a sex trafficking ring in Northern Virginia in exchange for free sex from the trafficked women.

The lawsuit also names former Fairfax County Police Chief Ed Roessler as a defendant, alleging that he helped cover up for the officers when another detective’s work threatened to expose their wrongdoing.

The suit was filed on behalf of a Costa Rican woman identified in the lawsuit only as “Jane Doe.” It says the officers would tip off the trafficking ring to suspend its online advertisements in advance of sting operations run by police.

The price of withholding video footage evidence

Police Misconduct

An attorney for the family of a Wisconsin resident who was shot and killed by a Polk County sheriff’s deputy in 2018 told Axios this week that the shooting “more likely than not was justified.”

Why it matters: The case drew questions over why video evidence was withheld for more than two years after the shooting.

It also cost the county at least $170,000 to settle legal disputes.

Flashback: Polk County sheriff’s officials said Isaiah Hayes robbed a Grinnell Walmart and led law enforcement on two high-speed chases on July 17, 2018.

Polk deputy Ryan Phillips shot and killed Hayes as he tried to flee on foot in an Altoona neighborhood, sheriff’s officials said.

Hayes was holding a gun at the time of the shooting, according to the sheriff’s officials. Methamphetamine was later found in Hayes’ system, autopsy records show.

New Mexico Opens Door to New Era of Civil Rights Lawsuits

Civil Rights

Efforts among a handful of states to hold police accountable for brutality and misconduct are expanding Thursday as New Mexico opens the door to civil rights lawsuits against government agencies in state court.

The New Mexico Civil Rights Act removes immunity provisions that shield government agencies from financial liability related to misconduct, though individual officials won’t pay for damages.

As the law takes effect, local police agencies are bracing for an onslaught of lawsuits that can carry liability awards of up to $2 million per event. At least one county sheriff’s department has been declined private insurance coverage — highlighting concerns about potential payouts.

The legislation, drafted amid nationwide protests over police brutality and institutional racism, reaches beyond law enforcement practices and applies to

Read the records of 85,000 cops who were investigated for misconduct

Police Misconduct

At least 85,000 law enforcement officers across the USA have been investigated or disciplined for misconduct over the past decade, an investigation by USA TODAY Network found.

Officers have beaten members of the public, planted evidence and used their badges to harass women. They have lied, stolen, dealt drugs, driven drunk and abused their spouses.

Despite their role as public servants, the men and women who swear an oath to keep communities safe can generally avoid public scrutiny for their misdeeds.

The records of their misconduct are filed away, rarely seen by anyone outside their departments. Police unions and their political allies have worked to put special protections in place ensuring some records are shielded from public view, or even destroyed.

Reporters from USA TODAY, its affiliated newsrooms across the country and the nonprofit Invisible Institute in Chicago spent more than a year creating the biggest collection of police misconduct records.

Obtained from thousands of state agencies, prosecutors, police departments and sheriffs, the records detail at least 200,000 incidents of alleged misconduct, much of it previously unreported. The records obtained include more than 110,000 internal affairs investigations by hundreds of individual departments and more than 30,000 officers who were decertified by 44 state oversight agencies.