City Hall
Citizen Observer Requests Changes to City Firearms Review Policy
At today's meeting of the city council's public safety committee, Rebecca Roe, the citizen observer for the city's firearms review board, requested significant changes to the way the board investigates police shootings. Roe's briefing didn't address the recent shooting of John T. Williams by rookie officer Ian Birk; however, it did offer a look at the way SPD assesses police shootings, as well as some recommendations that could change the way SPD investigates police shootings in the future.
The city-appointed firearms review board (FRB) investigates and reviews the circumstances surrounding intentional shootings by police officers. The citizen observer plays much the same role as the Office of Professional Accountability Review Board, which oversees SPD's police-accountability agency, the Office of Professional Accountability.
The citizen observer, Rebecca Roe, said that although all the shootings during 2008 and 2009 were technically "justified," she was alarmed by one shooting in which, she said, SPD officers violated department policy by shooting at a moving vehicle when they weren't in imminent danger. In that shooting, a police officer approached a car with mismatched plates that, according to the report, "may have [been] stolen" (but wasn't).
"The officer had no reason to believe he was in imminent threat of harm until he moved to block the car from leaving -- a violation of policy," Roe's report says. "The dangers posited by the policy were realized as the firing into the car was ineffective and harmed someone the officers did not know to be involved in any criminal activity."
Roe recommended five significant changes to the firearms oversight process. First, she recommended that more than one citizen observer be allowed to sit in on FRB presentations "to instill public confidence that the process does not rubber stamp the officers action."
Second, Roe recommended that she be allowed to attend FRB deliberations, not just the initial presentations to the board. "The citizen observer was once there for deliberations, but that was [opposed] by the [police union]," Roe said. "My concern [is] that I say my piece and it's kind of duly noted and there's no give and take about it."
Third, she said that the citizen observer get access to the review board's reports and give her own written report before they're presented to the police chief. "
Fourth, she said the police department needs to be more clear about its criteria for allowing an officer to return to duty after he or she fires a weapon.
And finally, she said the department needs to address a "serious problem with radio transmissions that endangered officers" in two 2009 shootings.
In response to council member Bruce Harrell's question about whether the police department would agree to Roe's proposals, assistant police chief Dick Reed said he agreed in principle to all of the policy changes; however, deputy police chief Clark Kimerer said the question of whether the citizen observer could sit in on firearms review deliberations was "a bargaining item" that would have to be hammered out during SPD labor negotiations.
The city-appointed firearms review board (FRB) investigates and reviews the circumstances surrounding intentional shootings by police officers. The citizen observer plays much the same role as the Office of Professional Accountability Review Board, which oversees SPD's police-accountability agency, the Office of Professional Accountability.
The citizen observer, Rebecca Roe, said that although all the shootings during 2008 and 2009 were technically "justified," she was alarmed by one shooting in which, she said, SPD officers violated department policy by shooting at a moving vehicle when they weren't in imminent danger. In that shooting, a police officer approached a car with mismatched plates that, according to the report, "may have [been] stolen" (but wasn't).
"The officer had no reason to believe he was in imminent threat of harm until he moved to block the car from leaving -- a violation of policy," Roe's report says. "The dangers posited by the policy were realized as the firing into the car was ineffective and harmed someone the officers did not know to be involved in any criminal activity."
Roe recommended five significant changes to the firearms oversight process. First, she recommended that more than one citizen observer be allowed to sit in on FRB presentations "to instill public confidence that the process does not rubber stamp the officers action."
Second, Roe recommended that she be allowed to attend FRB deliberations, not just the initial presentations to the board. "The citizen observer was once there for deliberations, but that was [opposed] by the [police union]," Roe said. "My concern [is] that I say my piece and it's kind of duly noted and there's no give and take about it."
Third, she said that the citizen observer get access to the review board's reports and give her own written report before they're presented to the police chief. "
Fourth, she said the police department needs to be more clear about its criteria for allowing an officer to return to duty after he or she fires a weapon.
And finally, she said the department needs to address a "serious problem with radio transmissions that endangered officers" in two 2009 shootings.
In response to council member Bruce Harrell's question about whether the police department would agree to Roe's proposals, assistant police chief Dick Reed said he agreed in principle to all of the policy changes; however, deputy police chief Clark Kimerer said the question of whether the citizen observer could sit in on firearms review deliberations was "a bargaining item" that would have to be hammered out during SPD labor negotiations.
