McGlinchey in the News
Two decades after earlier civil rights probe, can today’s Justice Department bring change to Columbus police?
Read Time: 1 minBob Driscoll, Member and co-chair of our Government and Internal Investigations practice, was quoted in a Dec. 2, 2021 article in Columbus Alive. The story details efforts the city has made towards police reform in the past, including when Bob served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division from 2001 to 2003.
“Phillips was of the somewhat correct view, from a union perspective, of, ‘Look, the DOJ and the executive of the city can’t just negotiate an agreement, because the union is the one that has to carry it out,’” said Robert Driscoll, a deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division from 2001 to 2003.
Driscoll, the former DOJ official, described the COPS office approach as a milder federal review. “It’s a way to do, essentially, a soft pattern and practice (investigation),” he said. “It’s providing technical assistance and money and not necessarily finding civil rights violations or the negative consequences of having a pattern and practice (investigation).”
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