Mayor Wants ‘Outright’ Ban on Police Using Mug Shots for Target Practice

By Julianne Hing Jan 20, 2015

North Miami Beach Mayor George Vallejo criticized his city police department for using mug shots of black men in its sniper team target practice exercises Monday, the Miami Herald reported. Vallejo also took to Twitter over the weekend to say that he plans to call for city legislation to ban the practice "outright."

After Florida Army National Guard Sgt. Valerie Deant found a sheet of shot-up mug shots which included the face of her brother in December, she found out that the police department used photos of men who’d been arrested over a decade ago in its sniper training program. The training program has since been suspended, and the city’s police chief J. Scott Dennis has ordered an investigation into the practice, the Miami Herald reported.

The practice says nothing about how police interact with the community off the shooting range, North Miami Beach Maj. Kathy Katerman told the Miami Herald. "We have other targets, too," Katerman told the Miami Herald. "We don’t just shoot at black males."

The target practice sheets were discovered amidst widespread outrage and national protests over the 2014 police killings of black men, including Michael Brown and Eric Garner.