Flagler NAACP calls for local reforms to law enforcement

Palm Coast Observer
News

The Flagler County branch of the NAACP recently sent a letter to many agencies and the local media to call for reforms to law enforcement. Local law enforcement will be asked for reactions in a future story. Also, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office recently submitted a story that responds to some of the requests in advance.

The full text from the NAACP is as follows:

Pursuant to the National NAACP and Florida State NAACP police reform initiative, the Flagler County NAACP promulgated its demand for community policing accountability in specific policies of our law enforcement agencies within our jurisdiction which include, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO), the Bunnell Police Department (BPD) and the Flagler Beach Police Department (FBPD), hereinafter collectively as (“SO/PD”). This proposal seeks to redress use of force, duty to intervene, preservation of body-worn camera evidence, unlawful stop & frisk, implicit bias, de-escalation, recruitment of Black candidates for law enforcement positions and other forms of police practice and customs. Please consider the following:

Amend Use of Force General Order to add the following provision that explicitly prohibits unlawful restraints as follows: “Any deputy(s)/officer(s) who utilizes the strictly prohibited banned chokehold, neck restraint, carotid hold or positional asphyxiation restraints, or utilizes any other type of sitting, kneeling or standing on a subject’s torso causing distress, while the subject is handcuffed, subdued or otherwise restrained, or any person under their custody, care or control, the Sheriff/Police Chief shall immediately initiate an employment termination proceeding and the deputy(s)/officer(s) may be held criminally liable.”
Deputy(s)/officer(s) who either participated or witnessed the prohibited restraint of a handcuffed, subdued or restrained suspect shall immediately notify the shift supervisor. The shift supervisor shall immediately notify the shift commander of the preliminary details.

The shift commander shall conduct a full investigation and timely submit a written incident report to the Sheriff/Police Chief. The Sheriff/Police Chief shall review the body-worn camera video of the incident. If the suspect suffered a physical injury, serious physical injury or death, the Sheriff/Police Chief shall immediately notify the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and State Attorney’s Office (SAO) to conduct an independent investigation.
Promulgate a Duty to Intervene provision to state: “A deputy/officer who witnesses another deputy(s)/officer(s) utilizes the strictly prohibited chokehold, neck restraint, carotid hold or positional asphyxiation restraints or utilizes any other type of prolonged sitting, kneeling or standing on a subject’s torso causing distress, while handcuffed, subdued or otherwise restrained, or any person under their custody, care or control, or engage in any other form of excessive use of force misconduct in violation of department policy or statutory law, the witnessing deputy(s)/officer(s) shall immediately intervene to ensure the well-being of the suspect regardless of rank, seniority or fear of retribution.

The witnessing deputy(s)/officer(s) shall report the incident to the shift supervisor. The shift supervisor shall immediately notify the shift commander of the preliminary details. The shift commander shall conduct a full investigation and submit a written incident report to the Sheriff/Police Chief.
The SO/PD recognizes that all deputies/officers have an independent sworn duty to intervene and report misconduct by law enforcement members from this department or any other police agency regardless of rank, seniority or fear of retribution. Any deputy/officer who fails to do so, shall be terminated from employment and may be held to the same criminal liability as the offending deputy(s)/officer(s).
The SO/PD also recognizes the possibility of retaliation or retribution against deputies/officers who may report such police misconduct. Therefore, the SO/PD shall take disciplinary action against any employee of the SO/PD who engages in such retaliation or retribution against any deputy(s)/officer(s) of this department who acted to prevent unlawful misconduct in properly reporting excessive use of force and the reporting deputy(s)/officer(s) shall be held harmless of any discipline in reporting such misconduct.
It is the SO/PD’s general principal and philosophy that deputy(s)/officer(s) who respond to, or are directly engaged in the use-of-force, shall emphasize the reverence for life, de-escalation in use of force, recognized their duty to intercede in excessive use of force misconduct, exercise proportional responses to dangerous incidents, on-scene supervision shall uphold deliberate accountability and ensure disciplinary action against all forms of unlawful racial discrimination in police service which will not be tolerated.
Promulgate a transparent and publicly accessible use-of-force analysis which shall be posted on the SO/PD website that allows the public to monitor when and how force is used to take citizens into custody.
Promulgate a General Order for an early warning system to identify deputies/officers that may need more training and mentoring. A Deputy/Officer who acquire excessive complaints of misconduct shall be reassigned from public contact until such a time the deputy/officer achieves the SO/PD’s goals of the additional training and mentoring.
Create an ongoing and frequent crisis intervention and de-escalation training of deputies/police officers.
Promulgate a General Order provision that explicitly prohibits and disciplines unlawful Stop & Frisk tactics of citizens premised upon unlawful racial profiling deemed unconstitutional by federal court in stopping Black citizens without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and often on the basis of a person’s race. See Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., 959 F. Supp. 2d 540 (2013).
Promulgate a General Order provision that specifies Public Access to Body- Worn Camera Recordings of alleged misconduct and specifies the severe disciplinary sanctions for deactivating body-worn cameras which results in its failure to record any incident. The General Order provision shall include the following: “Any deputy/officer who intentionally removes or deactivates his/her body-worn camera, or deletes its recording shall be terminated from employment and may be criminally liable for tampering with physical evidence, F.S. 918.13.
The SO/PD shall promulgate a General Order provision that explicitly prohibits and bans “No-Knock Warrants.” All other type of warrants shall be reviewed for errors and endorsed by the Sheriff prior to submission to the reviewing Judge for execution. No-Knock Warrant raids statistically has shown to be inherently and extraordinary dangerous to law enforcement and victims of errant warrants. In the State of Florida, it is particularly dangerous where homeowners are lawfully permitted to possess firearms and defend themselves against intruders, thus, unnecessarily placing police in legal peril.
Require regular Deputy/Officer training on implicit bias, racial profiling, peer use-of-force intervention and crisis de-escalation before use of force.
Develop Recruitment and Retention Measures to accomplish and maintain Police Force Diversity with Broad Representation from the Flagler County Community.
Promulgate a trial program for mental health professionals and clinical social workers to respond directly to mental health and non-violent domestic service calls with responding deputies/officers.
Promulgate an “Emotional Disturbed Person Policy” that includes enhanced de-escalation training. The SO/PD should acquire a variety of less-lethal weapons and regularly train to subdue citizens with non-lethal force.
Initiate and create a “Community Affairs Unit” and assign deputies to specifically foster positive and productive police-community relations by partnering with community leaders, civic organizations, block associations, and concerned individuals, and work to create solutions for problems that arise within the Flagler County many diverse communities. The Community Affairs Unit shall play a critical role in the SO/PD's refocused approach to achieving and sustaining gains against crime by strengthening community relationships and trust. The CAU shall also create programs to provide youth with enrichment, crime diversion and intervention in helping to reduce juvenile crime.
The FCSO and Flagler Schools Board shall move to modify the their current “Inter-local School Agreement” between the FCSO and Flagler Schools to create and institute a “District Police” program. See i.e., the Orange County Schools program at: https://www.ocps.net/departments/district_police

The Flagler Schools Board shall hire and train a new “District Police” staff for interior school duties and daily student contact. The current SRD’s would be removed from their daily interior school duties and maintain their perimeter, front entrance and school event security duties.
Recruitment of Black Candidates for Road Patrol: Currently, there are only (3) Black deputies on FCSO Road Patrol, (0) Black officers on FBPD Road Patrol and (0) Black officers on BPD Road Patrol. The Flagler County NAACP seeks to attract qualified Black deputies/officers to our local police agencies.
Our community demands that the SO/PD initiate a program designed to pay all costs associated with attending the Basic Law Enforcement Academy at Daytona State College, for eligible candidates. The “Deputy Sheriff Sponsorship Program,” similar to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, shall assists economically challenged community and neighboring residents who want to pursue a law enforcement career with our SO/PD.

See i.e. https://www.volusiasheriff.org/news/applications-accepted-now-for- vcsos-deputy-sheriff-sponsorship-program.stml

In addition to paying for tuition, books and lab fees, the program also offers selected candidates a full-time job at the Sheriff’s Office as a Special Worker, earning $10 an hour for 40 hours a week while enrolled in the academy. Once candidates receive their law enforcement certification, the new deputy(s)/officer(s) will be appointed to the neighborhood community road patrol division in exchange of a two-year written contract commitment for compensation of the SO/PD’s candidate investment.
The citizens of Flagler County seek a public announcement in our local media regarding the SO/PD’s new recruitment initiative effort to hire qualified members of our community specifically encouraging members of the Black community.
The SO/PD shall acquire and maintain “Florida Accreditation” indefinitely. Accreditation has long been recognized as a means of maintaining the highest standards of professionalism. Accreditation is the certification by an independent reviewing authority that an entity has met specific requirements and prescribed standards. Our review of records revealed that BPD and FBPD are not accredited law enforcement agencies at the time of this reform agenda. See http://www.flaccreditation.org/accagencies.htm#C
The SO/PD shall remove any and all confederate related statues, flags, stickers, vehicle plates and insignias from their facilities and department property.
The Flagler Community widely demands the immediate removal of the FCSO’s “Green Roof Inn Vacancy” sign and its “Accommodation Sign” from its County Jail property. Its message is deemed widely condemned as offensive, unprofessional, antagonist and unnecessarily provocative to the community. Further, it is widely believed to be rancorous to inmates not convicted of a crime and that it does not have any probative crime discouraging value.
The FCSO shall train and prohibit the Flagler County Sheriff’s Emergency Communications Unit 9-1-1 center employees from broadcasting alleged “suspicious activity” based solely on the purported suspicious person’s “Black race or color.”
The FCSO shall change the current black and white uniforms of the “Inmate Work Crew” program. The inmates’ appearance in our community is shockingly offensive.

Although it may not be the intent of the FCSO, the image of inmate work crews “cutting grass, pulling weeds, trimming hedges and other landscaping projects” has caused avoidable anguish and distress of invoking historical “chain gang” plantation slavery memories in the Black Community.

Residents have been alarmed at the servitude appearance of the inmates working in public spaces in our community. We recommend at least changing the inmates’ uniforms to one solid color.

Our police reform proposal will be made public. The Flagler County NAACP supports the men and women of our local law enforcement agencies during this very contentious time.

We also support implementation of revolutionary police reform in the best interest of great community concern. This proposal seeks to reassure and affirm public trust, discipline and good order in police operations, policies and practice, and equitable treatment by our law enforcement agencies in direct response to the police murder of George Floyd and other widely known cases in which Black citizens were killed by police.

We therefore urge you to thoughtfully consider fully implementing our police reform measures to reaffirm trust to this community that law enforcement will enforce and administer the law according to the standards of the U.S. Constitution, the Florida Constitution and statutes, and Code of Ethics of the Office of Sheriff to ensure that equal protection of the law is guaranteed to everyone, regardless of color.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of our proposal. If you have any questions regarding our police reform agenda, please feel free to contact us at the information below.

Linda Matthews, President

Eric Josey, Chairman of Legal Redress Flagler County Branch NAACP

1 Florida Park Drive S., Suite 305 Palm Coast, Florida 32137

Office: (386) 446-7822

Mobile: (917) 882-1330

Email: [email protected]

Cc: