Black Lives Matter Casts Doubt On Independence Of Topeka’s Police Auditor

From the Kansas Reflector:

By Noah Taborda, The Kansas Reflector
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Oct. 7, 2020

TOPEKA — Leaders of Black Lives Matter Topeka say the city’s police department must shift its focus to correcting unjust policing systems and practices to achieve meaningful reform.

More than 50 people gathered Tuesday evening in front of the Statehouse before marching in near silence to City Hall, where they called for increased accountability from the Topeka Police Department and cast doubt on the city’s independent police auditor, Ed Collazo.

“The police auditor is not in theory or practice independent,” said Courtland Davis, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Topeka. “Being a former officer himself, the ‘independent police auditor’ has been taught policy in the same oppressive manner as the officers he is reviewing, giving him an obvious bias.”

In Topeka, Black Lives Matter is demanding the city council create a civilian review board to represent the community, overhaul qualified immunity for police officers, and make the topic of the independent police auditor’s performance a weekly item for discussion.

Collazo was hired as the independent police auditor in August 2019 to review all investigations of citizen complaints and use of force by TPD. Davis criticized Collazo, who has yet to find a case of excessive force among the more than 100 complaints he has reviewed since his hiring.

Those complaints include that of Tamiko Mitchell, an unarmed black woman who was stopped by law enforcement earlier this year after running a red light, ordered from her car and slammed to the ground by an officer.

Mitchell suffered a fractured nose and eye injuries from the incident. She filed a complaint alleging the officer used excessive force, but Collazo determined the actions taken were within policy.

According to the independent auditor’s report, Mitchell did not cooperate when officers requested she turn off the car and get out. The report indicated she met the criteria for resisting arrest.

“Not only were the officers’ actions excessive, they were unnecessary,” said attorneys Joshua Luttrell and LaRonna Lassiter-Saunders, who represent Mitchell. “The broad freedom given to law enforcement makes it nearly impossible to hold them accountable for abhorrent behavior. We expect officers to de-escalate, not exacerbate.”

Mitchell is not the only complaint of excessive force by TPD under scrutiny. In 2017, Dominique White was shot and killed while fleeing two TPD officers. White had a gun in his pocket at the time.

Three months after the incident, Shawnee County district attorney Mike Kagay said the officers involved would not face charges. Last month, on the three-year anniversary of the shooting, a U.S. District Court judge ruled the officers could not be sued because of qualified immunity.

On Sept. 19 of this year, the TPD again came under fire for an officer’s use of force toward an autistic 14-year-old boy who was in his own yard. According to TPD, the officers were dispatched to the area after reports the boy was walking his dog off-leash.

The mother of the boy filed a complaint to Collazo’s office. The case is still under review.

“When an unarmed black woman is injured for running a red light or when a 14-year-old boy is thrown to the ground and put in handcuffs for walking in front of his own home, then we know that the law is not to protect, but to rule,” Davis said as the Black Lives Matter group made its demands.

Among those demands was the creation of a permanent Office of Police Accountability in the city, with a community-selected director. Additionally, the group called for a community review board to be included in everything from policing oversight to the police union bargaining process.

Until the office and board are created, the group called on Gov. Laura Kelly and Attorney General Derek Schmidt to take action.

“We demand Governor Laura Kelly and State Attorney General Dereck Schmidt uphold their state constitutional duty on behalf of everyone who lives here, and immediately appoint a special counsel to receive and investigate public complaints of excessive and deadly force, for all law enforcement in the state of Kansas,” said Misha Reed, another organizer of Black Lives Matter Topeka.

Beyond police accountability, rallygoers and organizers called attention to voter suppression, inadequate health care and inequities within the public school system and its role in the school to prison pipeline.

Pjay Carter, an organizer of Black Lives Matter Topeka, demanded all Topeka schools remove officers from school grounds. He said having police at school does not promote safety.

“As we forge our path, we intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting,” Carter said. “We hope that the City will acknowledge the life and the lives of all those killed by police brutality and pledge: Never again, not in this city.”

The Kansas Reflector seeks to increase people's awareness of how decisions made by elected representatives and other public servants affect our day-to-day lives. We hope to empower and inspire greater participation in democracy throughout Kansas.