Orlando police are hoping civilians will understand that they do not need to believe everything they read.
A report published by the Orlando Sentinel following a 10 month investigation has revealed that the department used force more often than any of their counterparts across the United States.
The in-depth enquiry also detailed four highly publicized cases, just from last year.
According to the paper, in the four-year period between 2010 and 2014 the number of incidents where excessive force was used raised “a lot of red flags” for the experts.
However, the Orlando police Department responded via Twitter saying that the public should be cautious when reviewing such information.
The post said: “Don’t believe everything you read.”
In the time frame that the report looked at, it turns out 3100 civilians suffered abuse from the officers.
This involved hitting, kicking, using the pepper spray or other forms of force.
Six in 10 people who were abused ended up getting injured and more than half of these needed medical attention.
While the use of excessive force is an issue all over the United States, the report revealed that Orlando police used force more than twice as often as other agencies.
In terms of settlement, the city has had to pay more than double of what other American cities have paid in cases where members of law enforcement have used excessive force.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina says it is quite unreasonable that the city is being compared to other departments.
He says there is a heavy mix of bars in the city center.
“One-third of our defensive tactics forms come from the downtown area,” he added.
Not only this, he categorically says that the officers from his department do not use excessive force.
The report reveals Orlando officers use force some 640 times in 12 months.
This figure does not include the 30 times when firearms were used – on 10 occasions it proved fatal.
Mayor Buddy Dyer acknowledges that has policies have been detrimental in creating a certain type of culture in Orlando downtown.
“They have a very dangerous job to do, a job that I would not want to do. I quite honestly would not want to be one of the officers on Saturday night or Sunday night, dealing with all of the people that they do downtown,” he remarked.
President of the National Action Network Central Florida chapter Lawanna Gelzer says the cops’ attitude to the public is simply intolerable.
“The data and information is now before the community and we need a full investigation by the Department of Justice. You don’t have to go to Ferguson to understand this problem, it is happening here in Orlando,” she said.
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