County Council Wants More Information After Cop Uses Racial Slur

SILVER SPRING, MD — The Montgomery County Council is calling on the county police department to release all body camera footage from an incident last week in Silver Spring, where a white officer was heard using a racial slur while talking to black men.

In a letter to Acting Police Chief Russell Hamill on Tuesday, the County Council expressed dismay at the group of officers who "detained, frisked, and issued trespassing citations" to four black men waiting outside a McDonald's for a ride to their jobs.

"As our Acting Police Chief, you are directly responsible for the management of our police force," the Council Council wrote. "In that regard, we write to encourage you to work to eradicate from MCPD any tolerance for behaviors that cause or encourage any officer to act in a manner that is unlawful, disrespectful or otherwise racially motivated toward any resident of Montgomery County."

The letter to Hamill comes a week after a video, which was posted on social media, purportedly showed a white police officer using the N-word while investigating a group of black men who were reportedly trespassing. The incident occurred outside a McDonald's on New Hampshire Avenue at about 10:36 a.m.

Since the video has circulated online, the Montgomery County Police Department has released the video from the man who recorded the interaction, as well as the female officer's body camera footage.

All nine members of the County Council, however, want more information.

In the letter, the Council requested that authorities release all body camera footage from the incident.

"We have seen the social media footage, reviewed the publicly available body-camera footage, and learned details of the incident from an in-person meeting between Councilmembers (Will) Jawando and (Craig) Rice and two of the young men detained by MCPD," the Council wrote. "From what we have learned, we have reason to believe the actions by our county police violated department protocol and standards that we would expect of county-employed personnel."

In addition to obtaining all body camera footage, the Council asked for "information about police stops and trespassing citations throughout the County and for the release of MCPD's policy on racial profiling."

The Council cited an agreement McDonald's has with the Montgomery County Police Department, which allows officers to detain people even though there has been no call for police. In the letter, the Council expressed concerns about the agreement, saying it "creates a climate ripe for racial profiling."

"(W)e understand that McDonald's has an agreement with MCPD that officers can act as their agents and stop and detain people in the immediate vicinity of that restaurant even though there has been no call for police. We are concerned that such an agreement creates a climate ripe for racial profiling and the loss of trust, accountability and transparency."

"We call on you to detail how you intend to address these issues, what steps you will take to remedy the immediate situation for these four residents (including exploration of rescinding the trespassing orders), and what you will do to change the culture in MCPD that leads some individual officers to publicly flaunt not just department policy, but basic tenets of respect and professionalism when interacting with county residents," the Council said.

SEE ALSO:

• Cop Heard Using Racial Slur In Video Posted On Social Media