According to CNN, "A suburban New York police department (Mount Vernon) routinely violated residents' civil rights, including making illegal arrests and using unnecessary strip and cavity searches, according to a new US Department of Justice report."
CNN also reports that this investigation falls under one of twelve DOJ investigations that have been opened regarding police misconduct since 2021.
A more specific issue that was investigated regarding the city's police misconduct pertained to a 65-year-old and a 70-year-old woman who were wrongfully arrested for buying drugs. Although no drugs or paraphernalia were found in their vehicle, they were still detained. The station's supervisors then approved a fully nude strip search by detectives who "told them to bend over and cough," according to the report.
Although an internal investigation later determined that officers lied about the two women buying drugs to complete their arrests, those officers were reportedly reprimanded by being docked a few vacation days and were not released from the force.
More disheartening information surfaced in CNN's report of the investigation, which stated— "Until at least the fall of 2022, it was the Mount Vernon force's practice to strip search every person it arrested, according to the report. Officers also strip-searched people they did not arrest, detained and interrogated people without formally arresting them, and arrested people for verbally criticizing police officers."
CNN's article continued, "Illegal strip and cavity searches continued until at least 2023, the report found. The investigators said that while the practice was "curtailed" during its probe, "we are not confident that these practices have ended."
"Among a catalog of unconstitutional arrests, the DOJ identified a case where officers took the mother of a shooting victim to a police station and interrogated her, even as her dying daughter was rushed to the hospital. The daughter, struck by a stray bullet, died while her mother was in custody. Officers didn't articulate probable cause for her detention, according to CNN."
According to Fox News, "The report, released Thursday, identified that the Mount Vernon Police Department used excessive force in numerous ways, including by unnecessarily escalating minor encounters and overusing tasers and closed-fist strikes, particularly against people who were already on the ground, controlled by multiple officers or already restrained."
It appears that the investigation is on-going. The city's Mayor, Shawyn Patterson-Howard, said, "We wholeheartedly support our good officers and at the same time will not tolerate and will punish unconstitutional policing."
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