The North Miami Beach police department has drawn flak after it was revealed that the agency was using for target practice mug shots of black men previously arrested.
Sgt. Valerie Deant from the Florida Army National Guard was surprised when she arrived at the Medley Firearms Training Center for her annual weapons qualifications training and saw that mug shots of African-American men were being used as targets by snipers from the North Miami Beach police department. Even worse, she realized that one of the men in the lineup was her brother Woody.
Woody Deant was arrested 15 years ago in 2000 for participating in a drag race that led to the death of two people. He was 18 at the time. Woody did four years in jail for his involvement and has since gone the straight path, now living the life of a simple family man with a 9-to-5 job.
"The picture actually has like bullet holes. One in my forehead and one in my eye. I was speechless," he said when he learned of the incident.
Police Chief J. Scott Dennis responded that his officers could have used better judgment in picking practice targets but clarified no racial profiling happened.
"There are 22 images in all, including a white man holding a gun to a white woman's head and one of now dead Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The same target inventory has been used for more than a decade," he explained.
Dennis further defended the use of actual photographs, saying it is common practice integral to facial recognition drills. Because no policies were violated, no disciplinary action will be handed down to the police officers involved.
However, the police chief said that booking photos will no longer be used, most especially of suspects that his agency had arrested, and that he will instruct North Miami Beach police officers to remove targets before leaving the shooting range where they have their practices.
The police department will continue using human image targets, though, but only after expanding its inventory.
Other law enforcement agencies have said that they don't use photos of actual people for target practice, only those commercially produced.
"The use of those targets doesn't seem correct. The police have different options for targets. I think the police have to be extra careful and sensitive to some issues that might be raised," said Alex Vasquez, a retired FBI agent.
