A San Francisco public defender has called on the office of the state's Attorney General to investigate their police department. The defender is looking to probe several officers after the discovery of racist text messages.
According to Daily Progress, Public Defender Jeff Adachi has asked the Attorney General on Tuesday regarding his intentions to open up a civil rights investigation. This investigation will determine if the police department's policies and procedures can be considered flawed.
Last week, San Francisco district attorney George Gascon has revealed that several officers exchanged inappropriate texts, wherein some are involved in inducing racist text toward others. The latest messages were discovered during an investigation of an officer accused of rape in July.
San Francisco Examiner reported that in a letter written by Adachi to California Attorney General Kamala Harris, he said "These incidents reveal a pattern a practice within the Police Department that has allowed racism and disparate treatment of black and Latino people to fester and grow."
Recently, the Community Oriented Policing Service reviewed the department and proposed reforms to the use of force after the controversial killing of Mario Woods last December. However, the ACLU and Public Defender's Office argue that there are no follow ups being done to the reforms and the latest texts prove that.
ACLU lawyer Alan Schlosser said "The texts show that these views are still alive in the department. The commitment to rebuilding community trust and recognizing the need for transformative and significant change is not."
SF Bay wrote that Adachi's letter is asking Harris to look into the new set of alleged scandal and racial text messages exchanged among officers as well as the series of fatal shootings of young men of color. The new messages regarding this issue were revealed last month and were sent by atleast four officers as Gascon claimed.
The letter went on to say that in 2015, more than 360 officers were reportedly flagged but only six of them received any supervisory intervention. Now, the Board of Supervisors President London Breed and Supervisor Malia Cohen urge the police department commissioners to apprehend possible disciplinary actions to the officers.
