Community Center

VIPD Clears Internal Affairs Backlog, but Use-of-Force Reviews Still Hinder Full Consent Decree Compliance

The July status report on the V.I. Police Department's ongoing efforts to come into compliance with a decades-old consent decree is optimistic about the progress being made.  Filed in District Court on July 21, the latest status report states that the backlog of investigations in the Internal Affairs Bureau has been cleared. This, the report says, “will help improve VIPD's overall compliance with paragraph 71 of the consent decree, regarding the timely adjudication of complaints.” However, the independent monitoring team noted that much of the backlog consisted of older cases which were administratively closed. This means that a resolution, determination or finding was not reached when it came to the underlying complaint.  Meanwhile, VIPD continues to work on clarifying review requirements for Level 4 use of force. This has been a challenge for some time, as the VIPD itself admitted to the court during a 2023 progress update that the lack of timeliness in completing use of force inve...