Read on Twitter
Last summer, a Tampa man was violently arrested by TPD. His head was bashed against the hood of a car, his hair was pulled, and his legs were repeatedly beaten with a baton to the point he could barely walk. None of it was in the police report. https://bit.ly/3fQcwx8
By itself, this video is certainly bad. The police report not mentioning excessive force is also bad. But when you consider that this man's experience is just one example of TPD’s underreporting and increasing reliance on use of force then it’s much worse https://bit.ly/3fQcwx8
Use of force during arrests by TPD has jumped by 24% under since Brian Dugan became Chief of Police in 2017, and a closer look at the report shows that 15 out of the 25 categories that track use of force techniques by officers saw a significant increase. https://bit.ly/3fQcwx8
However, if TPD isn’t properly logging every incident involving use of force, like in this case, then it’s safe to assume these use of force numbers are probably significantly higher than what’s being reported. https://bit.ly/3fQcwx8
Also, TPD told CL that it would outfit 650 employees with body cameras. However, only corporals and officers would be given the new equipment. This means that the officer here wouldn’t have had a body camera b/c she was, at the time, a ranking sergeant. https://bit.ly/3fQcwx8
There’s no clear reason why TPD has witnessed such a dramatic spike in use of force under Dugan, but there are plenty of factors to consider. TPD officers are outsiders, undereducated, and significantly whiter than the city they serve https://bit.ly/3fQcwx8
