Police Chief Selection Highlights Need for Community Control
On Monday, July 10, it was announced that a Mayor Berke-appointed search committee had presented Berke with three finalists for the position of Chattanooga’s next Police Chief. Among those three finalists is Captain Todd Chamberlain of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The importation of any officer from the LAPD should raise concern considering the notorious history of the department-from the brutal beating of Rodney King in 1990 to the discovery in 2015 that more than 80 patrol cars had antennas removed and that officers were routinely tampering with video and monitoring systems, particularly when entering inner city communities.
Yet, despite all of the rhetoric around “community policing” that has come from the Berke Administration and the CPD under Fletcher’s leadership, the Berke-appointed search committee has chosen a finalist from the LAPD and either failed to do a simple google search or ignored the fact that Captain Todd Chamberlain was implicated in a widely reported-on racial discrimination lawsuit filed by former Black LAPD Officer Earl Wright. Wright experienced racial harassment and retaliation from white officers in the Central Station where Chamberlain, also white, was command staff. In the lawsuit, which resulted in a 12-0 decision and a $1.2 million damage award to Wright, Chamberlain was accused of condoning a racist culture by ignoring requests to file complaints against the officers who engaged in racist behavior. He was even himself directly accused of stating at a public community relations meeting that he “did not want officers hiding out at the 7-Eleven drinking watermelon slurppies”- invoking the stereotype of African-Americans and watermelons. One of the incidents that Chamberlain failed to discipline an officer for was placing a piece of fried chicken and a slice of watermelon in a cake that was supposed to honor Wright’s 20th Anniversary of service to the LAPD.
In 2013, the world saw a grim reminder of the LAPD’s racist culture, when former Officer Christopher Dorner killed several people. In a manifesto detailing his grievances with the LAPD, one of the main themes was the condoning of a racist culture by command staff and retaliation against officers for reporting it.
CCJ’s alarm about the choice of Chamberlain as a finalist should not be seen as an endorsement of either of the other two candidates, who have issues of their own. Finalist and acting Chief David Roddy has on many occasions been a vocal advocate of increased police funding for surveillance through purchase of body cameras, surveillance cameras, and other technology as well as militarization of the police through purchase of assault weapons and body armor. And though certain segments of the community have voiced support for Captain Edwin McPherson, his record troubles us as well.
Just a few years ago, McPherson was charged with untruthfulness by Internal Affairs after intervening in an investigation involving a robbery turned murder which detectives suspected involved his niece. Phone records showed that McPherson was on the phone with his niece before, during, and after the robbery turned homicide. McPherson showed up on scene at an unrelated investigation and ordered a subordinate not to collect a phone connected to the robbery/homicide case.
Our alarm about the selection of Todd Chamberlain, in particular, should rather be seen as another significant argument in favor of community control through the establishment of a real and effective civilian oversight board with subpoena, investigatory, and disciplinary power and significant representation from the communities who experience the most policing; and through community control of the city budget via participatory budgeting and divestment from the huge police budget in favor of investment in solutions that address the root causes of crime and violence. Because of community pressure to address the root causes, candidate after candidate in the last city elections stated “we can’t police our way out of these issues,” yet city officials continue making the most significant investments in policing and surveillance.
The bottom line is that we need community control and we ask that the Chattanooga City Council work with us to establish it now while a transition in leadership of the police department presents itself. We further ask them to seriously consider the implementation of participatory budgeting and will be presenting them with information and case studies from other cities in a special presentation at their July 25 meeting.
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Click the tabs below to see CCJ’s full answers to the followup questions asked by the Times Free Press for their July 19th story