Yes Charlottesville, there is racism in the CPD

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In a recent opinion piece, a former Charlottesville police officer, who rose to the rank of captain, claimed that there is and has not been racism in the Charlottesville Police Department for decades. decades. He’s wrong, and this false narrative will only fan the flames of aggressive warrior-type police officers.

Black people in Charlottesville know from their own experiences that racism permeates the CPD. Moreover, there is demonstrable evidence that this is so. For example, when former Chief Timothy Longo was finally convinced to keep track of stops and searches, we learned that on average seventy-five percent (75%) of those arrested were African Americans, but arrests of whites resulted in a percentage of summons, arrests and contraband seizures. Unfortunately, Chief Longo did nothing to stop this pattern. At the same time (and until today), 55% of arrests in Charlottesville are of African Americans who make up only 18% of the population.

Despite repeated requests to the police service over the past decade, no explanation has been provided for this extraordinary disparity. Finally, with support from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, the city commissioned a scientific study on race and our local criminal justice system. The system in general has malfunctioned and the CPD was found to have laid more charges and more serious charges against blacks than whites in a comparable situation.

Some of us, including the Mayor, Chief of Police, Commonwealth Lawyer, Public Defender and members of the community, have worked diligently to correct these injustices. With the departure of Chief Brackney, we have further delayed the process of change. Clearly, there is substantial opposition within the police service to reform and many (if not most) are clinging to the old way of doing things. A good example of the problem is the recent quote from a member of the SWAT team who yearns for the days when we can go back to gangsta sh ** t.

Yes, Charlottesville, there is racism in the police. The real question is how to eliminate it.

Jeff Fogel is a Charlottesville lawyer with over 50 years of experience in civil rights cases. He is the former executive and legal director of the ACLU of New Jersey, former legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He has taught civil rights and civil liberties at Rutgers and NYU law schools.

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