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San Jose Police Cleared Of Using Excessive Force

SAN JOSE (KCBS) - A finding has cleared the San Jose Police Department of using excessive force in making minor arrests, but has done little to resolve the concerns of several community groups.

The groups claim the findings mean very little because the study only looked at 180 cases involving resisting arrest.

Richard Konda with the Asian Law Alliance is a frequent critic of the police department. He said the report failed to address two major incidents that raised considerable community outrage.

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

"There was a case involving a San Jose State student. That incident was caught on tape," Konda said. "He was beaten with a baton and it seemed like excessive force. Another case involved Daniel Pham. He was shot 14 times by two police officers. Those two cases seem to me to be cases involving excessive force."

Acting San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore said the department takes the use of force allegations seriously.

"I don't believe that our department has a systemic problem with use of force," Moore said. "But to the extent that we do have allegations, we're going to investigate them fully and make sure that we don't have a situation come up where we have a concern."

The five-member panel that exonerated the department included the city manager and deputy police auditor.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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