Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News
Holding Law Enforcement Accountable
But I’ll start with our efforts to protect Americans’ civil rights by holding law enforcement officers accountable. As part of their vital role in enforcing our laws and keeping us all safe, law enforcement officers have the power to arrest and detain people, to search and seize property, and in some cases even to use deadly force. Given all that tremendous power, it’s our job to step in to investigate allegations of abuse.
Now, let me be clear here. I’m the leader of the world’s premier law enforcement agency, and I’ve spent most of my career proudly working shoulder to shoulder with law enforcement officers. At the FBI, we couldn’t have the impact we do without the partnership of the nearly 6,000 state and local law enforcement officers who work alongside our agents on our various FBI-led task forces.
Last year alone, for instance, the FBI and our law enforcement partners arrested nearly 18,000 violent criminals and child predators. That’s almost 50 bad guys we took off the streets per day, every day—together. So I’ve seen first-hand what they’re made of and what they do to make our communities safer.
The overwhelming majority of officers are in the job because they think of others before themselves, no matter the cost. They’re men and women of courage and character, of dedication and service. They work long hours—longer than most people will ever know—and don’t get paid nearly enough for what they do. Much of their work goes on behind the scenes—and rarely gets the attention or credit it deserves.
To answer the call to go into law enforcement, you’ve got to really want to help people. Because every day, when officers pick up their badges and say goodbye to their families, they know there’s a chance they might not make it home. Just stop for a second and think about what that really means. What it takes for someone to be willing to put their life on the line for another—and I’m not talking about a member of their family—I’m talking about potentially giving up their life to protect a total stranger.
Now think about doing that day after day, year after year for an entire career—and not just while they’re on the job, but when they’re “off duty,” out with their own family, too. It takes a pretty extraordinary person to choose that life.
Which is why when officers violate their oath and hurt the ones they’re sworn to serve instead of protecting them, it’s a discredit to those scores of brave men and women who do the job the right way, each and every day. And it’s why law enforcement at all levels share an interest in holding those who stray accountable.
At the FBI, we fulfill that duty as part of our responsibility to safeguard the civil rights of all Americans. And I can think of no better place to discuss that work than here in Georgia, where the capital’s known as the cradle of the modern civil rights movement.
Today, the FBI is the primary federal agency charged with investigating civil rights violations. And while our work combating hate crimes might be what most people think of when it comes to the Bureau’s civil rights program, another absolutely essential part of it is our investigation of color-of-law violations. Those crimes occur when an individual acting under the authority of federal, state, or local laws—under what’s known as the color of law—willfully deprives someone of their constitutional rights. And that deprivation of rights can run the gamut, from excessive force, false arrest, or obstruction of justice—to sexual assault, withholding medical care, or the failure to keep an individual from harm. While color-of-law violations can be committed by anybody acting under their lawful authority, including probation and corrections officers, public officials, prosecutors, and judges, they too often involve law enforcement officers.
An investigation the FBI’s Jackson, Mississippi, field office conducted last year represents a particularly heinous example. In January 2023, six white law enforcement officers committed some absolutely unspeakable crimes. Without a warrant or any exigent circumstances, the six of them kicked in the door of a home where two Black men were staying and subjected them to an hour and a half of pure hell. Despite having no probable cause to believe either had committed a crime, the six officers: handcuffed and arrested the men; kicked and beat them; bombarded them with racial slurs; forced them to strip naked; assaulted them with a variety of objects; tased them—not once, but 17 times; and fired their guns to intimidate them.
But apparently that wasn’t enough for these defendants. One of them had the idea to stage a mock execution. So he took his weapon and secretly removed a bullet from the chamber. He put the barrel into one victim’s mouth and pulled the trigger, dry-firing the gun. Then he did it again—but this time, the gun didn’t dry-fire. It discharged, sending a bullet into the victim’s mouth, lacerating his tongue, and breaking his jaw.
Can you imagine the abject terror those two victims must have felt? I mean, who do you call when the police are the ones terrorizing you? No human being should ever be subjected to the torture, the trauma, the horrific acts of violence carried out by those individuals.
As their gunshot victim lay bleeding on the floor, what do you think these six law enforcement officers—men who had sworn an oath to protect and serve—did next? I can tell you they didn’t render aid. Instead, they came up with a cover story and then took steps to corroborate it. They planted a gun on one of the victims; destroyed surveillance video, spent shell casings, and taser cartridges; submitted phony drug evidence to the crime lab; filed false reports; charged one of the victims with crimes he had not committed; made false statements to investigators; and pressured witnesses to stick to their cover story.
All of that came out through the course of the FBI’s investigation. We also found that in addition to those offenses, three of the officers had committed other color-of-law violations just a month earlier, when one of them beat another man, tased him, and fired a gun near his head attempting to coerce a confession, while the other two failed to intervene.
I recognize that what happened in Mississippi is an extreme example. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a more atrocious set of civil rights violations than those carried out by these guys. But on the flip side, it’s hard to imagine more important work than investigating those crimes and seeking justice for the victims. As the result of the Bureau’s color-of-law investigation, which we worked in collaboration with our federal and state partners, all six pled guilty last August and are now waiting to be sentenced.
The contrast between the vast majority of law enforcement officers who are in the job for the right reasons, to help people and keep communities safe—and the others, like those six in Mississippi, who instead use their power and authority to hurt the most vulnerable—that contrast is what makes color-of-law violations so immensely harmful.
We’ve entrusted law enforcement officers with vast power and authority. And when they abuse it—when they operate as though they’re above the law—they’re not just depriving victims of their civil rights. They’re degrading the public’s trust in our criminal justice system, one violation at a time. And that’s why the FBI’s work investigating these kinds of abuses is among our most important responsibilities.
The philosopher David Hume wrote that the corruption of the best things produces the worst. I know firsthand the men and women who choose a career of protecting others to be some of the very best among us. But while officers-turned-criminals make up a tiny fraction of the law enforcement community, the harm they do has the worst possible effect. Because no matter how infrequent, when officers violate the civil rights of ordinary citizens, it erodes trust—often in our most vulnerable communities—making the job that much harder for the honest men and women who do things the right way.