PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The police department in Providence, Rhode Island, is battling accusations that white officers who patrol the city’s poor South Side at night beat and harass blacks and Latinos.
A string of incidents, including cellphone videos showing questionable use of force, have led to calls for reform.
One lawyer calls the officers “the third-shift terror squad.”
Police officials are defending the department’s record and say they have worked to improve relations, discipline and retrain officers and diversify the force.
More than 75 percent of Providence’s police officers are white, versus 36 percent of the city’s population.
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