A just-released United States Department of Justice report says Mount Vernon's policing practices violate the Constitution.
According to newly published reports, the U.S. Department of Justice found that the Mount Vernon Police Department routinely violates the constitutional rights of its residents, a result attributed to top-to-bottom dysfunction within the department.
DOJ says Mount Vernon police officers routinely use "unreasonable force" against arrestees and, until recently, regularly performed unjustified body cavity searches.
In one example cited by the DOJ, Mount Vernon police officers conducted an illegitimate traffic stop of two women, 65 and 75 years old, after an officer said the women had engaged "in a hand-to-hand drug transaction." An internal affairs investigation eventually determined that the officer "had lied" and there was "no basis for the traffic stop."
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/mount-vernon/2024/12…
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/mount-vernon/2021/12…
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/mount-vernon/2021/12…