Complaints to CMPD and city officials surge following protests
Complaints against CMPD have surged since protests began over the killings of George Floyd and other Black people at the hands of police.
In response to questions from the Observer, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said it has received 110 complaints since May 29, the first day of nearly a month of demonstrations.
Some Charlotte City Council members said they have received hundreds of emails demanding police reforms, many of them related to June 2 when officers unleashed tear gas from multiple directions against a crowd of mostly peaceful protesters.
In recent years, CMPD typically has annually received an average of about 31 citizen or external complaints alleging excessive force, neglect of duty or rules violations, according to an annual report the department posts online.
During recent protests, some participants accused CMPD of using overly-aggressive tactics and escalating tensions.
Robert Dawkins, state organizer for SAFE Coalition, which advocates for police accountability, said the recent complaints are a result of CMPD’s refusal to accept reforms recommended by community activists following previous police protests.
“The only thing we get is watered down reform after somebody gets hurt,” Dawkins said. “Charlotte only cares about civil liberties after somebody is hurt.”
CMPD did not provide responses to all of the written questions submitted by reporters.
In an email, the department said it is still investigating complaints from the early part of June. CMPD also said officers have been disciplined in connection with citizen complaints in 2020.
The department did not say how many officers were punished or provide any information about the accusations.
In a brief interview, Charlotte Police Chief Johnny Jennings told the Observer that that he wishes the department had handled aspects of the June 2 confrontation with protesters differently. Jennings said he is planning another independent review of the department’s response to the protests.
Conflicting accounts
Police and protesters give conflicting accounts about what happened on June 2.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has said that officers were attacked with rocks, bottles and chemical agents before they dispersed the crowd. Protesters say police ambushed them and deployed gas that left them struggling to breathe, coughing and with burning sensations in their skin and eyes.
Michael Bates, Charlotte orthopedic surgeon, said he filed a complaint and wrote a letter to the city after attending protests on June 2.
Bates said he showed up about 9 p.m. and the demonstrations appeared peaceful before police became aggressive.
Video recorded by Queen City Nerve, an alternative news outlet, appears to show a mass of demonstrators walking near 4th and College streets in uptown when police released chemical agents on the crowd. Protesters turned to go in the other direction, but officers on that side blocked their path, also using chemical agents.
“Pure pandemonium, we were blocked in every direction,” Bates said.
Some protesters have complained that the crowd was doused with tear gas that left them struggling to breathe, coughing and having burning sensations in their skin and eyes.
Bates said he took off running to escape.
“I had to take off my N95 (mask) because I was choking so bad on the tear gas,” he said.
A city report dated July 13 says police used tear gas during protests to control “riotous behavior” and protect officers and the public.
Some 17 officers were injured during protests from explosives, rocks, bricks and bottles, the report says, including officers who suffered a loss of hearing, concussions and broken bones, the report says.
CMPD made 133 arrests and seized 25 weapons, including three guns on June 2, the report says.
A State Bureau of Investigation review found that during the encounter CMPD told protesters to disperse and left them with two clear paths to escape.
But the report found that during the June 2 incident, officers from the department’s Civil Emergency Unit were not equipped with body-worn cameras.
Consultants told CMPD more than two years ago that national best practices call for the unit to wear body cameras because video footage could help the department investigate citizen complaints against officers, they said.
CMPD needs to purchase special mounts for body cameras for those officers “to demonstrate a continued move towards transparency and accountability,” said the report from the Police Foundation, a Washington-based law enforcement research organization the city hired to examine the response to protests in 2016.
Jennings said that uniforms used by the Civil Emergency Unit lacked the capability to mount body cameras. The department is addressing the issue, Jennings said.
Changes coming?
The complaints against CMPD come as city leaders weigh police reforms.
Since the incident, Jennings said, CMPD has changed the way it handles dispersal orders during protests.
Officers will also no longer fire chemical munitions at demonstrators from multiple directions, Jennings has said.
Dawkins, the community activist, said he lobbied CMPD to make similar changes in the past but CMPD ignored pleas from him and others.
“If they had listened to us, they would not have been (trapping) protesters,” Dawkins said. “They would not have been firing chemical agents on people.”
In recent months, other cities have banned officers from using tear gas, cut spending on police and made other changes.
The City Council’s Safe Communities committee intends to look at parts of CMPD’s department directives, which outline policies related to everything from uniforms to use of force to body-worn cameras. The committee may also look at CMPD’s Standard Operating Procedures, which are policies that oversee specific CMPD programs or units.
City Council member Braxton Winston said CMPD’s failures during the recent protests are troubling. Winston, who was arrested during the protests, said city leaders must do a better job holding the department accountable.
“Things haven’t changed, but have actually gotten worse,” Winston said.
But Charlotte City Council member Ed Driggs said that the SBI review of the June 2 confrontation with protesters vindicated CMPD, saying officers followed department policies.
“They are doing what they always do,” he said. “They are trying to learn from the experience and improve.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 11:27 AM.
