Ludington Police Department Use of Force, Search and Seizure Policies Revealed

[XLFD]

In early February, I related a FOIA food fight with the City of Ludington regarding being able to view the Ludington Police Department's (LPD) policies for Use of Force and for Search and Seizure.  For some reason, the prior FOIA Coordinator, current Circuit Court Judge Susan Sniegowski, felt that these weren't for public viewing.  Continued battle with the threat of legal consequences with the city because the law and precedent were behind me, seemed to prompt the new FOIA Coordinator, Carlos Alvarado to agree with the release of the policies and I was given my first win on appeal to the city council for FOIA issues on February 9th, and received both policies the next day.

The policies were interesting enough, but I was sidetracked for a little while with a variety of other issues before finally sharing them here today.  An event happened this week in town by the LPD which was clearly a violation of any American search and seizure policy, and was a good reminder to me that these policies need to be available to all people that have to deal with a police department that repeatedly gets itself in trouble with civil right violations of its citizens, and repeatedly sweeps such incidents under the rug with willing complicity by the local media.  We surely wouldn't want to hurt our tourism by telling what our poorly trained police force is capable of.

The City seems to only want to reveal these policies because they were included in their defense of the case Travis Malone v. City of Ludington, tried in federal sixth circuit court, otherwise its release may compromise their workings, this is the defense they used earlier to shield these.  But both policies are important to know by the public to insure that basic civil rights are protected by policy, despite a growing trend by the LPD to trample those very rights. 

Without further ado here are those two policies in .pdf form:   Use of Force, Search Seizure

Let's review them as regards two incidents where the policies were clearly violated by the LPD. 

In the use of force policy we are given some definitions including what "deadly force" is:

When Joe McAdam was walking away from three officers after being a passenger in a car who admittedly committed no crime and yet was threatened with arrest, the officers leg swept Joe to the pavement and with at best passive resistance presented to the deadly force assault which included at least five taser shots at McAdam while prone and unresisting on the street, to be followed later by more taserings at the hospital while McAdam was chained to a hospital bed when he refused to be treated for the physical damage the officers inflicted on him. 

All of this damage was done despite any reason for the officers to do so, and it violates the written policy so clearly (shown below), you would have to believe that the officers' superiors would discipline them harshly. 

A guy walking away from his property after being intimidated and threatened by peace officers simply because he wanted to film the encounter does not deserve to have three burly officers apply deadly force to correct his behavior.

Likewise, if we look at the third (at least) federal lawsuit against LPD officer Aaron Sailor for police brutality, inflicted on an innocent houseguest Shelley Burns, we find major violations of their search and seizure policy.  Shelley was over visiting her sister when the LPD came a calling because they believed her nephew was there.  Reportedly, the LPD cops came into her sister's house without presenting a warrant, and Sailor pushed Ms. Burns out of the way from behind, causing her a bit of medical distress. 

The nephew was caught outside the house later, but the two LPD cops lingered inside the house, waited around for a warrant after the fact and took their time in getting Ms. Burns medical attention that she requested.  Being that no warrant for entering the house existed and was never presented the police could only enter the sanctity of the house in the following circumstances:

None of these situations were involved here, which makes the brutality used on an innocent houseguest all the more disgusting and worthy of the settlement received by the plaintiff.

The LPD's reluctance to transparently reveal these policies, which are based on general guidelines for police all over this country, is a good reason to believe that their priorities are not based on making sure they are followed and that they do not want to be held accountable if they aren't. 

[AQUAMAN]

Like I said previously, all this brutality could not exist if LPD was following their own written guidelines and procedures. It HAS TO COME FROM THE TOP! The best way to disguise this type of behavior, is simply to make it plain and simple to officers on the duty roster. That is by verbal orders to do whatever is necessary to put the fear of God in locals! And the only way to  prove this scam is for someone to blow the whistle on their boss/es. That in itself is not tolerated by any police department. They cover each other implicitly, and without regard to justice or the truths. When Chief Barnett came into the picture about 10 years ago, he brought with him that notion and demeanor. That of Big City Police tactics. Not too far removed from his predecessor either, that of Jack Harper. They rule with Iron Fists! Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead with whatever it takes to instill fear! Not respect and professionalism.

[Willy]

I  agree with you Aquaman, especially about the Chief bringing a "big city" attitude to this small corner of Michigan.