Police Constable Eric Casebolt resigned on Tuesday, June the 9th but indicates he was not pressured by the administration of McKinney Texas law enforcement. Casebolt made his resignation in lieu of paid administrative leave voluntary after a video was published on YouTube that revealed excessive force applied to a young, black female teenager. The video was shot by a young, white teen named Brandon Brooks and reveals instances of attempted crowd control after an HOA community pool was inundated by trespassers.

David Eric Casebolt had previously been charged in a federal lawsuit with racial profiling and excessive force during a 2007 drug related arrest of an accused Albert Brown Jr. in McKinney.  The accused was also a black youth who sued Casebolt and other arresting officers for allegedly conducting a forcible search, pulling down the victims pants in public and “slamming his head” against a car hood.   The case was later dismissed in 2009.

Hannah Stroud is the legal representative and counsel for the 15 year old black teenager, Dajerria Becton who was the alleged victim.  The confrontation showed Casebolt dragging, pulling and pinning down the bikini-clad teen after she had asked the officers for permission to collect her bag (and phone) to call her Aunt for a ride home.   The teen was then pushed to the ground, grabbed by her hair and had her face forcibly pushed into the ground by Constable Eric Casebolt, who is seen on the video kneeling on the back of the teen supressing her, while friends indicate she was experiencing difficulty breathing.

A Bad Day?

According to reports, Constable Eric Casebolt had a difficult day prior to answering the call.  The Constable had reported to the scene of a suicide shooting, where a man had taken his life in front of his family at a local apartment pool.   Later that day, Casebolt responded to a suicide attempt by a young girl and was successfully able to deter her suicide attempt.    Dallas lawyer Jane Bishkin who is counsel for Eric Casebolt indicated that the “emotions got the best of him” and he was in a sensitive emotional state by the time he responded to the call.

A press conference was held on Tuesday, June 9th by the Dallas Fraternal Order of Police Lodge where Bishkin spoke on behalf of her client.  Constable Casebolt may face criminal charges but declined to attend the press conference as he claimed to have received death threats, and did not feel safe attending in public.   Both Constable Casebolt and his immediate family have left their home and are in an undisclosed location for their safety.

Civil Rights and Statements from the Police President

The McKinney Fraternal Order of Police President, Mr. Dan Malenfant stated that Eric Casebolt was the Vice President of the M.F.O.P.P. and that “the incident did not reflect Casebolt’s abilities or personality as an officer.”

Civil rights groups including the New Black Panther Party and the Next Generation Action Network provided statements that called for prosecution of Constable Casebolt. The President of the Association of Black Lawyers Pamela Meanes called for a new ordinance and mandatory retraining of McKinney Texas law enforcement in the areas of de-escalation and crowd control techniques.

Evaluating a Problem without Data?

There are a number of cultural and enforcement administrative changes in the United States that have led to better monitoring of instances of excessive force by police officers.  Most enforcement vehicles are equipped with a camera to record traffic and pull-over activities and are admissible as evidence both to support the officer as well as to protect the rights of the accused.

In 2013 there were 49,851 officers in the United States who were injured or assaulted during the line of duty according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The rate of injury for police officers is 29.2% annually. But how many instances of verified police brutality are there in the United States every year?  Unfortunately there is very little reliable data to review.

In February of 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James B. Comey made a surprising statement about the reliability of reporting.

“Not long after riots broke out in Ferguson late last summer, I asked my staff to tell me how many people shot by police were African-American in this country. I wanted to see trends. I wanted to see information. They couldn’t give it to me, and it wasn’t their fault. Demographic data regarding officer-involved shootings is not consistently reported to us through our Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Because reporting is voluntary, our data is incomplete and therefore, in the aggregate, unreliable.”

The Law

The Federal Civil Enforcement “Police Misconduct Provision” states that it is “unlawful for State or local law enforcement officers to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of rights protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States” (42 U.S.C. § 14141). The law includes “excessive force, discriminatory harassment, false arrests, coercive sexual conduct, and unlawful stops, searches or arrests.”

The law also provides that a “pattern or practice” must be established to demonstrate police misconduct, which can include a historical review of an officer’s previous actions and legal suits or charges for harassment or excessive force.

Surveillance in Chicago and Illinois

Audio visual recording equipment is a tool that is used every day by law enforcement in the state of Illinois. Chicago boasts one of the largest networks of cameras in the world with over 400 enforcement vehicles equipped with cameras and many of Chicago law enforcement officers wear body cameras to record evidence.

The Illinois House of Representatives and Senate passed a new “eavesdropping” bill in December of 2014 which replaced former legislation that made it illegal to record audio or video of anyone (including police officers) without their express consent.  The former law was deemed to be unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court in March of 2014, and the new law makes it legal for citizens to record officers in the line of duty, provided that the activity of the officer is not compromised or obstructed by the recording individual.

The ability to legally capture the activities of law enforcement (particularly during an arrest) is something that The Fraternal Order of Police of Chicago insist may “potentially inhibit an officer from proactively doing his job” while the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (who challenged the law) felt that it was the right of citizens in Illinois to be able to record encounters with law enforcement to report violations.

As it is legal in fifty States in America to record a police officer in the line of duty, it is the hope of the American Civil Liberties Union that more infractions and admissible evidence is collected to reprimand offending enforcement officers and aid criminal defense lawyers Chicago where instances of brutality have occurred.