Police Department use-of-force reviews rarely find fault

Excerpts from Colombia Missourian, http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/07/14/police-reviews-rarely-find-fault-officers-use-force/
Police Department use-of-force reviews rarely find fault
By Tram Whitehurst
July 14, 2009 | 12:01 a.m. CDT

COLUMBIA — Of the 1,027 times Columbia Police officers used force against a suspect between 2002 and March 2009, the department’s internal review process concluded that officers acted improperly in just two cases.

The mandatory review of officers’ use of force — including strikes, batons, pepper spray, Tasers, dogs and firearms — is meant to ensure that officers are complying with department policies.

The numbers reveal a system that almost never finds fault with officers’ actions in the field, a situation that use-of-force researchers say is unrealistic yet common across the country.

“In some ways, the review process can be political camouflage,” said Kenneth Adams, professor of health and public affairs at the University of Central Florida and author of a U.S. Department of Justice report on police use of force. “We justify these situations by saying the incident was reviewed and it was justifiable. But if it operates as a rubber stamp, then what’s the point?”

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“Police are adept at writing reports, so they know how to phrase things so they appear acceptable,” Adams said. “But it can be suspicious when every officer who comes in has exactly the same story.”

A review of police reports from 55 instances of Taser use shows that officers often justify their use of force in similar ways, sometimes using the exact same phrasing. In 11 cases of Taser use reviewed, the officer wrote in his or her report that the suspect appeared to be reaching toward his or her waistband or pockets, and the officer feared he or she might have a weapon. In only one of these cases was a weapon — a screwdriver — discovered.

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The Taser reports reveal inconsistency in how the department reviews some use-of-force incidents and a tendency among certain officers to use a Taser more than others.

For example, although the December 2008 use of a Taser against a suspect who fled after urinating on a tree was found improper, the use of a Taser in a similar situation in February of the same year was found proper.

Dresner said the reason one of the cases was found improper and the other proper was because the Police Department wanted to use the improper case as an example of what was no longer acceptable under the revised Taser guidelines.

Matthew Schuckmann, now a 32-year-old graduate student at MU studying molecular microbiology and immunology, admits that he shouldn’t have run from the police when he was caught urinating on a tree at Broadway and College Avenue. But he thinks the officer’s actions that night in February were out of proportion to his crime.

“This was absolutely unjustified in this case,” Schuckmann said. “My crime was less than littering. Somebody who throws a bubble gum wrapper does more harm than what I did.”

Schuckmann is also upset about the officer’s attitude following the incident, saying the officer tried to joke around with him.

"'This will be something you’ll brag about to your grand kids one day,’” Schuckmann said the officer told him. The use of force was labeled proper. Schuckmann did not file a complaint after the event because he wanted to put it behind him, he said.

The officer involved in that case was Donald Weaver, one of two Columbia Police officers who account for more than a quarter of all Taser deployments reviewed. On three separate instances, Weaver fired his Taser at a suspect who was fleeing after committing a minor offense, a practice that the Police Department has now explicitly prohibited. In total, Weaver fired his Taser at a suspect on eight instances, more than any other officer, according to the reports.

Weaver resigned from the department earlier this year and moved to Los Angeles, Public Information Officer Jessie Haden said. Weaver could not be reached for comment.

Another one of the Taser incidents found proper by the Police Department was the case of Ricky Coleman, a senior at Hickman High School in February 2008, who had just helped to break up a fight and was leaving the school with his friend when Officer Timothy Giger stopped them.

Giger is the officer who used the Taser the second most. In five of the seven cases when he used a Taser, Giger fired the weapon multiple times, including firing it five times at Coleman, the most ever by one Columbia Police officer against a suspect. Haden said officers are not permitted to comment on active cases and declined the request for comment from Giger. Giger has been with the department for more than 10 years.

Dresner said that to understand why certain officers use force more than others, it is important to know where they worked, among other factors. Both Weaver and Giger worked on aggressive patrol units in central Columbia.

According to Giger’s police report from the Hickman Taser incident, after stopping Coleman and his friend, Coleman became agitated, so Giger grabbed his arm to handcuff him.

When Coleman pulled away, Giger fired his Taser at Coleman. The probes struck Coleman in the chest and stomach. The police report states Coleman attempted to remove the probes from his body and walk away, so Giger placed the Taser directly on Coleman’s hip and used the device as a stun gun, forcing Coleman to the ground.

The report states Coleman would not follow instructions while on the ground, so Giger fired the Taser two more times and used it as a stun gun once more.

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“The problem with use of force is that it gets put into the context of individual situations, and each situation is passed on,” said Adams, who wrote the report for the U.S. Department of Justice on police use of force.

“But one-by-one it adds up to a trend.”