Tacoma Police Department

Last updated

Tacoma Police Department
AbbreviationTPD
Agency overview
Formed1885
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction Tacoma, Washington, United States
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters Tacoma
Police Officers334
Civilians38
Agency executive
  • Avery L. Moore, Chief of Police
Website
www.cityoftacoma.org/page.aspx?nid=170
Tacoma Police Crown Victoria on Patrol TacomaPolice.jpg
Tacoma Police Crown Victoria on Patrol

The Tacoma Police Department (TPD) is the primary law enforcement agency for the city of Tacoma, Washington, United States. [1] The TPD employs 334 sworn officers and 38 civilian employees. [2] The Chief of Police is Avery L. Moore. [3]

Contents

History

The Tacoma Police Department traces its history back to 1874 when the first town marshal was appointed.[ citation needed ]

Controversies and misconduct

On March 3, 2020, Manuel Ellis, a black man, died while in TPD custody. Ellis said "I can't breathe" several times before his death. [4] On 2 December 2023 Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank were found not guilty. The department offered them each a half million dollars to leave their jobs. [5]

In 2021, several people were hit by an officer in a police car, causing multiple injuries. The officer was responding to reports of vehicles doing doughnuts in the street. It was found that the officer acted in defense for himself and there was no wrongdoing as he was being attacked. [6] [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program compiles official data on crime in the United States, published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). UCR is "a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of nearly 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Haven, Connecticut</span> Town in Connecticut, United States

East Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 27,923. The town is located 3 miles (5 km) east of New Haven, and is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region. East Haven is 35 miles (56 km) from Hartford, 82 miles (132 km) from New York City, 99 miles (159 km) from Providence, Rhode Island, and 140 miles (230 km) from Boston.

The Cerro Maravilla murders, also known as the Cerro Maravilla massacre, occurred on July 25, 1978, at Cerro Maravilla, a mountain in Ponce, Puerto Rico, wherein two young Puerto Rican pro-independence activists, Carlos Enrique Soto-Arriví (1959–1978) and Arnaldo Darío Rosado-Torres (1953–1978), were murdered in a Puerto Rico Police ambush. The event sparked a series of political controversies where, in the end, the police officers were found guilty of murder and several high-ranking local government officials were accused of planning and/or covering up the incident.

Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time, with a sharp rise after 1900 and reaching a broad bulging peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005-2006, 2014-2016 and 2020-2021. While official federal crime data beginning in 2021 has a wide margin of error due to the incomplete adoption of the National Incident-Based Reporting System by government agencies, federal data for 2020-2021 and limited data from select U.S. cities collected by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice showed significantly elevated rates of homicide and motor vehicle theft in 2020-2022. Although overall crime rates have fallen far below the peak of crime seen in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the homicide rate in the U.S. has remained high, relative to other "high income"/developed nations, with eight major U.S. cities ranked among the 50 cities with the highest homicide rate in the world in 2022. The aggregate cost of crime in the United States is significant, with an estimated value of $4.9 trillion reported in 2021. Data from the first half of 2023, from government and private sector sources show that the murder rate has dropped, as much as 12% in as many as 90 cities across the United States. The drop in homicide rates is not uniform across the country however, with some cities such as Memphis, TN, showing an uptick in murder rates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Weyerhaeuser kidnapping</span> 1935 kidnapping in the United States

The kidnapping of nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser occurred in 1935 in Tacoma, Washington, United States. The son of prominent lumberman J. P. Weyerhaeuser, George was successfully released for ransom and eventually succeeded his father as the chairman of the Weyerhaeuser company. The four participants in the kidnapping were apprehended and sentenced to prison terms totaling 135 years.

As of 2018, Detroit had the fourth highest murder rate among major cities in the United States after St. Louis and Baltimore and the 42nd highest murder rate in the world. The rate of robberies in Detroit declined by 67% between 1985 and 2014 while the rate of aggravated assaults increased. As a whole, the city's crime rate has decreased considerably from its 1980s peak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titusville Police Department</span> Law enforcement agency in Titusville, Florida

The Titusville Police Department (TPD) is the police force with the primary responsibility of public safety and the enforcement of state laws and county/municipal ordinances in the city of Titusville, Florida. In 2018, the department consisted of 137 full-time personnel and 17 part-time personnel. Full-time personnel includes sworn members, 911 dispatchers, code enforcement, and non-sworn civilians. The department also contained part-time personnel, like school crossing guards or record clerks.

Crime in Atlanta, Georgia is above the national median and has been a major problem for the city since the middle 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tucson Police Department</span>

The Tucson Police Department is the law enforcement agency responsible for the city of Tucson, Arizona.

The Anaheim police shootings and protests of July 2012 involve two fatal shootings by police officers in Anaheim, California, and subsequent public protests. On July 21, Manuel Diaz was shot and killed by Anaheim Police officer Nick Bennallack after he ran from the officers. Protests ensued after the shooting. On July 22, Joel Acevedo was shot and killed by Anaheim police in an alleged exchange of gunfire, making the seventh fatal shooting by an officer in Anaheim in twelve months. Both shootings were ruled justified by the Orange County District Attorney's Office, but a federal jury later found Officer Bennallack guilty of excessive force.

The American city of Baltimore, Maryland, is notorious for its crime rate, which ranks well above the national average. Violent crime spiked in 2015 after the death of Freddie Gray on April 19, 2015, which touched off riots and an increase in murders. The city recorded 348 homicides in 2019, a number second only to the number recorded in 1993 when the population was nearly 125,000 higher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Firearm death rates in the United States by state</span> Rate of death due to firearms, by state

This is a list of U.S. states with firearm death rates per 100,000 population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlottesville car attack</span> 2017 terrorist attack in the United States

The Charlottesville car attack was a white supremacist terrorist attack perpetrated on August 12, 2017, when James Alex Fields Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring 35. Fields, 20, had previously espoused neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs, and drove from Ohio to attend the rally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Floyd protests in Seattle</span> 2020 civil unrest in Seattle after the murder of George Floyd

The city of Seattle experienced protests over the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and 2021. Beginning on May 29, 2020, demonstrators took to the streets throughout the city for marches and sit-ins, often of a peaceful nature but which also devolved into riots. Participants expressed opposition to systemic racism, police brutality and violence against people of color.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Manuel Ellis</span> Homicide of a man while being arrested

Manuel Ellis was a 33-year-old African American man who was killed by police during an arrest on March 3, 2020, in Tacoma, Washington. The Pierce County Sheriff's Department initially claimed that Ellis had attacked a police car and officers, leading to the arrest. State prosecutors quoted civilian witnesses as saying that Ellis did not attack the police car or officers; they also said it was the officers who attacked Ellis after a conversation. Video of the incident showed officers repeatedly punching Ellis, choking him, using a Taser, and kneeling on him. State prosecutors stated that "Ellis was not fighting back", citing witness statements and video evidence. A police radio recording showed that Ellis said he "can’t breathe". Ellis told officers "can't breathe, sir" multiple times, according to prosecutors. Ellis was hogtied, face-down, with an officer on him, for at least six minutes, and a spit hood was placed on his head in this position, stated prosecutors. Ellis died at the scene while receiving medical aid from paramedics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breonna Taylor protests</span> 2020–22 protests after the police shooting of Breonna Taylor

The Breonna Taylor protests were a series of police brutality protests surrounding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman who was fatally shot by plainclothes officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department on March 13, 2020. Police were initially given "no-knock" search warrant, but orders were changed to "knock and announce" before the raid. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside the apartment with her during the raid, said he thought the officers were intruders. He fired one shot, hitting officer Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return, killing Taylor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of violent incidents at the United States Capitol</span>

The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., became the meeting place of the United States Congress when the building was initially completed in 1800. Since that time, there have been many violent and dangerous incidents, including shootings, fistfights, bombings, poisonings and a major riot.

The 1967 Tampa riots were a series of race riots during June 1967 in Tampa, Florida, as one of 159 such riots in the United States that summer.

References

  1. Tacoma Police Department Official Website
  2. [FBI UCR - Washington. (2017) Retrieved from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/table-78/table-78-state-cuts/washington.xls]
  3. Tacoma Police Chief's Welcome
  4. Baker, Mike (June 5, 2020). "Before the Death of Manuel Ellis, a Witness Told the Police: 'Stop Hitting Him'". The New York Times . Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  5. "Washington state officers acquitted in death of Manuel Ellis to receive $500K to leave police department". NBC News. January 17, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  6. "Pedestrian run over by Tacoma officer surrounded by crowd; incident caught on camera". KIRO. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  7. Alta Spells. "Tacoma police officer drives through crowd, leaving at least one person injured, officials say". CNN. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  8. "Tacoma officer drives police car through crowd, injuring at least 2 in Washington state". USA TODAY. Retrieved January 24, 2021.