ACLU of Nevada Sends Deficiency Letter to U.S. Dept. of Justice in Response to COPS/CNA Report

Affiliate: ACLU of Nevada
January 14, 2013 3:38 pm

ACLU Affiliate
ACLU of Nevada
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

LAS VEGAS, NV – The ACLU of Nevada last week sent a formal Deficiency Letter to the U.S. Department of Justice in response to the report issued by the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) report, prepared by management consultants CNA, on the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

“The COPS/CNA report has a lot of helpful recommendations in it, but it does not go far enough to truly make cultural changes at Metro,” said ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Dane S. Claussen. “And the other primary problem is that the COPS/CNA report’s recommendations are completely voluntary, plus there is no mechanism to monitor implementation or effectiveness of any reforms that are made.”

Staci Pratt, Legal Director of the ACLU of Nevada, said, “The CNA report’s limitations, which we predicted from the beginning, make it more urgent that the Department of Justice act affirmatively on our patterns-and-practices petition of January 2012. Moreover, that petition called for an independent monitor of Metro, and the County Commission’s destruction of the coroner’s inquest process makes an independent monitor all the more important.”

The ACLU of Nevada’s letter to the DOJ and complete press release are attached (PDF) and available at: http://aclunv.org/press/aclu-nevada-details-shortfalls-report-metro

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