ACLU Calls for Federal Investigation of Louisiana Sheriff’s Office

The ACLU of Louisiana is calling on federal prosecutors to launch an investigation into the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office following a report that revealed stark racial disparities in shootings by deputies and systemic transparency problems, reports ProPublica. The WWNO/WRKF and ProPublica investigation found that more than 70 percent of people who deputies shot at during the past eight years were Black; that figure is more than double the 27 percent of the Black population in this suburb west of New Orleans.

In addition, 12 of the 16 people who died after being shot or restrained by deputies during that time were Black men. Despite years of complaints by Black community leaders in Jefferson Parish, the DOJ has not intervened. Ashonta Wyatt, a leader in Jefferson Parish’s Black community, called the ACLU’s request a “wonderful step in the right direction.”  Wyatt and other community leaders said years of ignored complaints have eroded the public’s trust in the department. Because the sheriff is an elected position, the office is accountable only to voters, barring DOJ intervention. The ACLU called for prosecutors to review three lawsuits it has filed against the Sheriff’s Office as further evidence of misconduct. The suits allege sheriff’s deputies beat a Black man in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center, used excessive force against a protester and unlawfully detained and searched a Black woman because of her race. Nearly twice as many lawsuits alleging wrongdoing by deputies have been filed against the Sheriff’s Office as against the NOPD since 2013, despite NOPD having about 1,100 officers compared with about 760 at the Sheriff’s Office.