Ripped for use of excessive force, the Springfield, Massachusetts, Narcotics Bureau is becoming a Firearms Investigation Unit.
https://reason.com/2021/07/19/what-happens-to-discredited-drug-cops-they-get-rebranded-as-gun-cops/?utm_medium=email
"Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood, in a continued effort to modernize the department and move the Springfield Police Department forward, is today announcing the creation of a Firearms Investigation Unit to address the uptick in gun violence in the city and the reallocation of narcotics investigation resources to regional and state partnerships," Springfield, Massachusetts, announced on July 9. "The new Springfield Police Department Firearms Investigation Unit will replace the department's Narcotics Unit, which Commissioner Clapprood is with this move decommissioning."
The "decommissioning" of the Narcotics Bureau, even as anti-drug efforts by the department continue elsewhere, comes a year after a U.S. Department of Justice report about the unit concluded "there is reasonable cause to believe that Narcotics Bureau officers engage in a pattern or practice of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution."
"Specifically, our investigation identified evidence that Narcotics Bureau officers repeatedly punch individuals in the face unnecessarily, in part because they escalate encounters with civilians too quickly, and resort to unreasonable takedown maneuvers that, like head strikes, could reasonably be expected to cause head injuries."
https://reason.com/2021/07/19/what-happens-to-discredited-drug-cops-they-get-rebranded-as-gun-cops/?utm_medium=email
"Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood, in a continued effort to modernize the department and move the Springfield Police Department forward, is today announcing the creation of a Firearms Investigation Unit to address the uptick in gun violence in the city and the reallocation of narcotics investigation resources to regional and state partnerships," Springfield, Massachusetts, announced on July 9. "The new Springfield Police Department Firearms Investigation Unit will replace the department's Narcotics Unit, which Commissioner Clapprood is with this move decommissioning."
The "decommissioning" of the Narcotics Bureau, even as anti-drug efforts by the department continue elsewhere, comes a year after a U.S. Department of Justice report about the unit concluded "there is reasonable cause to believe that Narcotics Bureau officers engage in a pattern or practice of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution."
"Specifically, our investigation identified evidence that Narcotics Bureau officers repeatedly punch individuals in the face unnecessarily, in part because they escalate encounters with civilians too quickly, and resort to unreasonable takedown maneuvers that, like head strikes, could reasonably be expected to cause head injuries."
