A court-appointed federal monitor has given the Detroit Police Department high marks in its eight-year quest to reform the force.
The monitor said the department has complied with 78% of the reforms that it agreed to carry out in 2003 to curb excessive force, mistreatment of prisoners in police lockups and illegal arrests of potential witnesses at homicide scenes. The monitor's report in June said the department was at 72% compliance.
"There is positive momentum that, if sustained, will be a major turning point in this long process toward reform," monitor Robert Warshaw, a former police executive from North Carolina, said in a 250-page quarterly report filed Monday with U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Warshaw credited Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. for inspiring the department to embrace the reforms.
But Warshaw said the department still has problems, including reviewing and investigating use of force incidents in a timely manner.
Warshaw issued the report just days after a Livonia man sued the department and two officers in federal court, saying they sucker-punched him at the MGM Grand Detroit casino in July and filed false assault charges against him. The man's lawyer released a video of the episode Monday.
A Detroit police spokesman, asked to reconcile the department's good performance on the police reforms against the graphic video clip, said the casino incident is under investigation.
Copyright 2011 - Detroit Free Press
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
