News Highlights

“It’s a new era in law enforcement,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan. “We have to talk about [police-involved] shootings after they occur. Before, the police typically said ‘No comment,’ and the case went to a Grand Jury. Today, the community doesn’t accept that.”

Dolan and St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington were panelists at an April 3 “Force Facts and News Broadcasts” seminar hosted by the two police departments. They organized the seminar at the suggestion of local mental health providers and some residents, to share concerns and provide information about police training and court decisions on use of force.

Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Center at Minnesota State University in Mankato, was also a presenter. Lewinski has spent years studying cases in which police have used force—including tasers, batons, and guns—during arrests.

Local incidents and training

Dolan talked about recent incidents in which Minneapolis Police officers had used force against suspects. In one case, police shot an unarmed man. In another, the suspect was shot 48 times. “Last year in Minneapolis we had two of the toughest shootings we’ve ever had to deal with. We were able to deal with them fairly well, piece by piece. We worked with the community and we worked with the families,” he said.

Harrington and Dolan said both departments have an Early Warning System to monitor changes in behavior in its officers and determine whether they are able to perform their jobs competently.

“We look at their sick leave usage, their absenteeism, if they’ve had any car accidents recently, if there have been any allegations against them,” Harrington said. “We also have an employee assistance program, where officers have access to a psychiatrist, psychologist, or a peer support group. In some cases the officer might say, ‘This job is no longer a good fit for me.’”

Dolan said Minneapolis’ employee assistance program is confidential and frequently used. “It’s a place to go if I have concerns about my partner. It includes the police chaplain corps and supervisors. In addition, we [police administration] evaluate every use of force, whether it’s a punch, a kick, a strike or a shooting.”

Harrington said that St. Paul’s use of force philosophy is, “All we want to do is talk.”

Dolan agreed with that, and added, “When we look back at what we’ve done, often we see that when we make mistakes, it’s because we’ve made an [incorrect] assumption.

“Nowadays there are many forensic tools, such as DNA, powder burns, videotape, fingerprints, blood spatter,” he added. “An officer says something happened one way, but sometimes they may not quite remember, because things happened so fast. In retrospect what looked like the obvious choice or the obvious outcome might not have been the right one.”

In some cases, that’s where Lewinski’s work comes in. Lewinski has a doctorate in police psychology and is a professor in the law enforcement program at Minnesota State Univer- sity, Mankato. He is often called to testify in court cases involving force. He said he has interviewed more than 1,000 officers around the world, “including a handful who have shot and killed fellow officers, and some who, without legal justification, have shot and killed somebody. We certainly know that there are some officers who shouldn’t be carrying a gun.

“Part of the problem with law enforcement, however, [and proving things one way or the other] is that the facts have not been made available,” Lewinski said. “For example, the Los Angeles police department, because of the Rodney King incident, has long had the reputation for being the most violent police department in the United States. But in reality, in recent years, studies showed that those officers had used force in less than one percent of all arrests.”

Force studies

As he has unraveled incidents where force was involved, Lewinski has in some cases been able to vindicate police officers through reconstructing events. He has studied various aspects of time and motion, for instance, how long it takes for someone to shoot a gun while standing in different positions, or the position of somebody’s body while they are running and shooting.

“Our goal is to provide better information for officers and the courts, and to provide for safer, more effective legal and tactical decision making on the street. We want to see more responsible investigations and reconstructions. We want to provide enhanced reality-based training, reflecting the latest scientific findings.”

Lewinski said they have learned that an average person can draw, aim and fire a gun at a target in a quarter second. “Naive shooters can be accurate to the head at 20 feet; officers [even when wearing bullet proof vests] are not protected at that distance.”

The television show “CSI” has done two programs based on the Force Science Research Center’s findings, he added, including one episode that showed how a running, turning suspect could be shot in the front and the back of the head.

Officers may not have a good recollection of a series of events,he said, because in many cases things happen so fast. Suspects might be psychopaths, sociopaths, or chemically addicted, and “addiction can create psychosis.”

Police officer training

Steve Frazer, a commander in the St. Paul Police Department’s training unit, explained the steps it takes to become a police officer. Most applicants have a college degree or a two-year Associate Arts degree, unless they have military service or are trained officers coming from another state. (Colleges such as the University of St. Thomas and Hamline University now offer law enforcement programs, he added.)

Police recruits attend an eight-to 10-week long academy, certified through the Minnesota State College System, and must pass the POST, Police Officer Standards and Training exam. They are issued a “police officer” license, which is activated by the department that hires them, and they must take and pass a civil service examination. “They have to pass a background check, which includes their credit history, a check of their references, and to see if there’s any history of chemical abuse. If they receive a job offer it’s conditional, based on whether they pass the medical and psychological tests.”

Frazer said about 35 percent of the applicants don’t pass the background checks. “You can’t get into someone’s personal records until you’ve made them a job offer. We typically lose 10 percent on medical and psychological rulings. A psychologist might determine they are not well suited to the job. It takes six to eight months to get an appointment to be a police officer. It ends in a final offer of employment.”

Frazer said St. Paul police officers have recently received training in working with deaf people. Both police departments are gearing up for the Republican National Convention, which will be held in the Twin Cities. “We go through a lot of communication training,” Frazer added. “Half the complaints we get are the way police talk to people or handle people.”

Another St. Paul officer, Josh Lego, talked about court decisions regarding use of force, such as the 1989 Graham versus O’Connor case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court “recognized that the duties of the police to investigate, arrest, search homes and persons, must be accompanied with the right to use or threaten reasonable force.”

Lego said officers must make quick decisions about using force. “The more severe the level of criminal destruction, the higher use of force the police officer has to use. Suspects often fight to escape and sometimes they fight to injure the officers.”

While something like pepper spray works against police officers, it might not always work against a suspect, and the distance between them must be less than six feet away for it to be effective. The ideal distance for a taser is from seven to 25 feet, he added.

(The seminar included a demonstration of the taser; a Lyndale neighborhood resident volunteered to let officers shoot her with it. Two officers supported her by the arms so she wouldn’t fall, while a third shot her with the X26 taser, an instrument that uses 50,000 volts and .0004 amps at 19 pulses per second. Afterwards, she said, she definitely felt the effects of it. Her hands shook uncontrollably for a few minutes.)

According to information from the Minneapolis Police Department, internal affairs reports from the City of Minneapolis are now available on line at Police Internal Affairs link. For information about Force Science Research, go to the force science web siteor the Force Science News web site.