Editor’s note: This story is in the latest edition of the UP that can be found digitally on our Issuu page.
The FAU Police Department had its share of complaints and compliments sent to its office. In the 2019-2020 school year, the campus community filed ten complaints against its officers, alleging issues of unprofessional sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
Blue Lives Matter is a countermove to Black Lives Matter that supports police in the United States, often to attack Black Lives Matter. Blue Lives Matter sees the police as the “thin blue line” between the community they protect and lawlessness.
COMPLAINTS AND COMPLEMENTS
Of the ten complaints, seven were found to be unfounded by internal investigations by the department, which means that the police considered that there were not enough facts or evidence to proceed with the investigation.
One such case involved an officer who was accused by a plaintiff of racial discrimination and making an illegal arrest. The police department’s internal investigation into the incident found evidence of “dating violence”, but no unethical behavior or racial discrimination. In a case that occurred in October 2019, a police officer “adjusted his belt while looking at an employee”, according to the complaint. The officer subsequently retired for what the university called medical reasons, according to records obtained by the University Press through requesting public records.
A sustained complaint was among the records obtained, which meant that the complaint would be upheld and an investigation would be carried out. A police officer was not using his Body-Worn (BWC) camera when investigating a complaint about a bus used to transport students to Universal Studios in April 2020. According to the report, the police officer was later advised by the department not to activate the camera.
Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina and a former Tallahassee Police Department official, said in an e-mail that the use of body cameras did not severely affect a policeman’s daily work. “They have one more piece of equipment that they need to keep loaded (like radios and flashlights). They need to remember to turn it on and off, and to upload and record the videos. These are relatively minor changes, mainly administrative, ”said Stoughton.
Stoughton noted that how officers do their jobs is a “complicated” issue. “BWCs have different effects at different agencies, because each agency is different. A well-managed agency with a well-trained and supervised workforce will not see as many improvements as a less well-managed agency, because there is simply less room for marginal improvements, ”he said.
According to FAUPD police chief Sean Brammer, all university officials must turn on the body’s cameras “as soon as they get out of the vehicle.” Officers began using body cameras in 2015, but professors at the university’s Faculty of Criminology and Criminal Justice helped develop the existing policy with Chief Brammer when he was officially promoted to chief in 2017. Brammer served as acting chief in 2016.
“Responsibility is based on being able to identify what an agency is doing well and where it needs to improve,” says Seth Stoughton.
Brammer said that if a police officer does not have a camera on, he will be subject to internal discipline and will violate department policy. Brammer said that if there is a case that deals with the Health Insurance Liability and Portability Act (HIPAA), a federal law designed to discourage the disclosure of confidential health information to the public, law enforcement officers use alternative methods to obtain accurate statements from victims.
“[Officers] we’ll have a statement written by hand or recorded by the victim’s voice, so that we can have your statement documented about what happened during the incident, just for privacy rights, ”said Brammer.
If someone wants to make a complaint, the police department has a form to do so on their website. People are also free to enter the department and a supervisor will make a complaint on their behalf.
When a complaint arrives at your desk, Brammer decides whether there will be an internal investigation or whether the office will go through what is called a “preliminary investigation”, which determines the nature of the complaint.
FAUPD handles all complaints submitted accusing the department of wrongdoing, Brammer said. In an amendment to the Florida Officers’ Rights Act, a document used to guarantee certain rights for law enforcement officers and law enforcement officers, outside agencies can handle investigations if the police department so requests. “If I feel that there is a situation in which we need another transparency, I will bring in an outside agency for them to investigate,” said Brammer.
FAUPD Thin Blue Line Policy
In November 2020, a Twitter account representing the university’s police department posted pictures of officers participate in “No Shave November” on Twitter, to raise awareness of cancer patients who lose their hair in the treatment process. In these photos, the police sergeant. Michael Marzigliano wore a Blue Lives Matter flag on his uniform.
Chief Brammer said that while his department does not have a policy against using Blue Lives Matter memorabilia, there are “restrictive policies” on what officers can wear in their uniforms.
“We do not allow anything other than the uniform we give police officers to wear in their uniforms,” he said.
In the state of Florida, there have been many cases where the Blue Lives Matter flag has caused controversy. Last summer, the New Port Richey Home Owners Association told a former sheriff in Orlando to remove a Blue Lives Matter flag from his property.
Last June, sheriff captain Ryan Brown banned Sarasota county deputies from wearing Blue Lives Matter memorabilia while on duty, citing “unique times” and “always maintaining professionalism”.
When asked about the perception of the “thin blue line”, Chief Brammer said that, to properly police, there is no room for the “us versus them mentality” that the flag and the mantra came to have. “It’s all about inclusion,” he said.
What can students do?
Stoughton said one of the ways students can hold the campus police department accountable is to understand the structure of the campus police agency and get information about what the agency is doing. “Responsibility is based on the ability to identify what an agency is doing well and where it needs to improve. This requires transparency, ”said Stoughton. He also added that students and teachers must provide community feedback to their agency as well.
Adam Dobrin, professor of criminology at the FAU Faculty of Criminal Justice, believes that students should pay attention to more than one side of the story when it comes to the way police interactions are portrayed. “A lot of media representation at some of these events is limited, and when the full video is released, it is not quite the story the media is presenting,” said Dobrin.
Dobrin’s best suggestion, however, is that students become volunteers in the police department. “If you really want to affect change, enter the arena yourself,” he said. “Be a bridge between the community and the police.”
Joseph Acosta is the business manager at FAU University Press. For more information on this story or any other story, send an email to [email protected]or send him a tweet to @ acosta32_jp.