Schumer Weighs In On Mount Vernon Police Scandal

MOUNT VERNON, NY — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a statement on Friday backing a call from Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah for a federal investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department.

"Senator Schumer strongly supports the City of Mount Vernon and the Westchester County district attorney’s calls for a federal investigation and hopes that the Department of Justice does a thorough, top-to-bottom report to enact productive and meaningful change within the Mount Vernon Police Department," Schumer Spokeswoman Allison Biasotti said today.

The declaration follows Rocah's public urging of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the department for what she called "pervasive and persistent alleged civil rights violations including unlawful strip searches, excessive use of force and other misconduct."

The District Attorney says a DOJ investigation is needed because it could investigate civil rather than criminal law, which does not normally fall under the jurisdiction of her office. She said handing these civil rights investigations over to federal investigators would also allow the DA's office to continue to work closely with the police to prosecute crimes in Mount Vernon without her office also having to investigate the police at the same time.

“The Westchester District Attorney’s Office is engaged in ongoing criminal investigations of certain individual MVPD police officers,” Rocah said in a statement issued on Friday. “In the course of those investigations, based largely on publicly available information, we have found disturbing allegations of patterns of inappropriate and potentially unlawful conduct by several former and current members of the MVPD. We have provided information that we gathered in this respect to DOJ.”

In addition to a vote of confidence from the Senate majority leader, Rocah's move to publicly request a federal investigation into the police has also earned the support of Mount Vernon's top office holder.

“Since taking office in January 2020, my mandate has been transformation and accountability across city agencies including the police department," Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said. "We are working hard to dismantle systemic issues and reform policing to ensure that our community is a safe place for all. Our administration referred multiple cases to the district attorney for review and welcome DA Rocah’s request that DOJ add its resources to identify and address these issues for the benefit of our community.”