More technology should be deployed to deter police misconduct

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http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2014/05/14/technology-deployed-deter-police-misconduct/

MAY 14, 2014, 1:00 PM 

Dawud Walid: More technology should be deployed to deter police misconduct

Metro Detroit has always been one of the more notorious areas in America for police misconduct and brutality. In my parent’s generation, there was systematic brutality and racial profiling, from the Detroit Police Department’s notorious Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets (S.T.R.E.S.S.) unit and routine harassment of black men driving west of Wyoming St. by the Deaborn Police during the era of Mayor Orville Hubbard.

Since then, we’ve had numerous events ranging in severity and media scrutiny, from the fatal beating of Malice Green in 1992 by Detroit Police officer Larry Nevers, to Grosse Pointe Park Police suspending five officers last year after it was revealed that a black man with diminished mental capacity was made to make ape sounds while in police custody.

Last week, dashcam video was made public regarding an incident in which a Dearborn Police officer is seen kicking an unarmed Lebanese immigrant who was being restrained on the ground. The man who was kicked multiple times barely speaks English and has diminished mental capacity, similar to the gentleman who was humiliated last year in Grosse Pointe Park.

These incidents, spread across decades, makes one wonder if there’s a greater law enforcement culture issue at hand.

Sure, there are many honorable officers serving in our region and being in law enforcement is never an easy task. However, the reflex in which police chiefs have to defend their officers, seemingly at all costs, helps perpetuate actions such as what took place in Dearborn.

But thank God for technology.

We can lawfully take smartphone video of officers in action, and many police vehicles are outfitted with dashcams, which pick up audio and video of police interactions.

All officers, as public servants, should be mic’d at all times while on duty. Officers’ interactions should be public record, except for detectives investigating sensitive cases and/or taking official statements of witnesses to crimes. Every sheriff and police officer’s car in Michigan should be compelled to have dashcams.

For many people, behaviors do not change without consequences. Greater opportunities to scrutinize the behaviors of law enforcement officers may serve as a deterrent against police misconduct.

DawudWalid

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), which is a chapter of America's largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for American Muslims and is a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee. Walid has been interviewed and quoted in approximately 150 media outlets ranging from the New York Times, Wall St Journal, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, FOX News and Al-Jazeera. Furthermore, Walid was a political blogger for the Detroit News from January 2014 to January 2016, has had essays published in the 2012 book All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, the 2014 book Qur'an in Conversation and was quoted as an expert in 13 additional books and academic dissertations. He was also a featured character in the 2013 HBO documentary "The Education of Mohammad Hussein." Walid has lectured at over 50 institutions of higher learning about Islam, interfaith dialogue and social justice including at Harvard University, DePaul University and the University of the Virgin Islands - St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses as well as spoken at the 2008 and 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Conventions alongside prominent speakers such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Keith Ellison. In 2008, Walid delivered the closing benediction at the historic 52nd Michigan Electoral College in the Michigan State Senate chambers and gave the Baccalaureate speech for graduates of the prestigious Cranbrook-Kingswood Academy located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Walid was also a featured speaker at the 2009 and 2010 Malian Peace and Tolerance Conferences at the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa. He has also given testimony at hearings and briefings in front of Michigan state legislators and U.S. congressional representatives, including speaking before members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C. Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history during the era of Prophet Muhammad through the governments of the first 5 caliphs. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, and continues to deliver sermons and lectures at Islamic centers across the United States and Canada. Walid was a 2011 - 2012 fellow of the University of Southern California (USC) American Muslim Civil Leadership Institute (AMCLI) and a 2014 - 2015 fellow of the Wayne State Law School Detroit Action Equity Lab (DEAL). Walid served in the United States Navy under honorable conditions earning two United States Navy & Marine Corp Achievement medals while deployed abroad. He has also received awards of recognition from the city councils of Detroit and Hamtramck and from the Mayor of Lansing as well as a number of other religious and community organizations.

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