ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A jury acquitted a former city police officer this week of misdemeanor charges. Connor Rice was accused of beating a suspect after he surrendered. Some of the incident, including video of another officer putting his boot on the suspect's head, was recorded on the officer's lapel camera.
In 2012, Mayor Richard Berry issued a special order for all Albuquerque police officers to activate their lapel cameras on every call. The department has faced repeated allegations of racial profiling of young Latino men.
Since 2010, APD officers have shot 27 people. Seventeen were killed - many of them young Latino men. In response to public outcry, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into APD's use of excessive force. That investigation is ongoing.
The jury in the Rice case deliberated for three hours before finding the former officer not guilty.
Preston Wood is director of the local peace and justice advocacy group ABQ A.N.S.W.E.R. He said the jury's decision was a travesty of justice.
"The world is watching, so those of us who care about true justice are going to keep organizing and ultimately the police have to be held accountable by the people," he said.
Racial profiling is an issue for communities across the Southwest and the nation. The practice has long been cited as a reason why immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally are less likely to contact law enforcement to report crimes or to assist with investigations.
Earlier this year, the ACLU in Arizona launched an app for mobile devices so that people could report when they believe police were engaging in racial profiling, especially when enforcing that state's law requiring people to show proof they are in the U.S. legally.
The concern in Arizona is that Latinos would be racially profiled by local law enforcement agencies. The "show me your papers" provision of Arizona's SB 1070 law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012.
In the San Diego suburb of Escondido, changing demographics have sparked the creation of law enforcement checkpoints which have in turn led to concern among Latino residents about racial profiling.
Meanwhile, just last month, New York City's stop-and-frisk policy was struck down by a federal judge who said the policy was unconstitutional and leads to racial profiling.
