Use of Force Review and Report of the City of Mobile Police Department

Apr 23rd, 2024

Posted in: Public NoticePress ReleaseMayorMPD - (Mobile Police Department)Public Safety

A copy of the “Use of Force Review and Report of the City of Mobile Police Department" compiled by former U.S. Attorney Kenyen Brown is linked here.

After this report was published, Mr. Brown sent a letter to City of Mobile Attorney Ricardo Woods about one of the incidents he reviewed that occurred at ACCEL Academy. Mr Brown later released that statement to members of the local media. You can read it below:

“Dear Mr. Woods,

At your request, the Independent Investigative Team performed an additional review of the Accel Academy surveillance video referenced on page 21 of its Report, in which an Assistant Principal “appears to yank Juvenile #2’s hair (which is in a long braided style) hard enough to turn her body’s direction around 180°.” Juvenile #2 and the school official appear some distance from the mounted surveillance camera. Viewing recently received enhanced video utilizing forensic tools to zoom in on and slow down the video images depicting the described incident, the subjects in the video become more pixelated and leave questions as to the certainty of whether the school administrator did in fact pull Juvenile #2’s hair, or whether the school administrator’s hand was merely in close proximity to Juvenile #2’s head and hair when her head and body turned 180°. The Independent Investigative Team thanks the City of Mobile for seeking clarification of the incident.”

After close collaboration with the leadership of ACCEL Academy, Mayor Stimpson issued the following statement: 

“It is most unfortunate that Mr. Brown’s team did not thoroughly review all the evidence before publicly making the allegation against a longtime professional educator. When brought to our attention, I immediately asked MPD Internal Affairs to review the evidence and asked Mr. Brown to revisit his findings. The evidence reviewed by Internal Affairs supports ACCEL’s findings that a crime did not occur. Going forward, we will assist the leadership at ACCEL as they work to clear up this matter.”