Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report Flashcards
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Issue Areas: Assessment of LVMPD operations with respect to OIS’s focused on Policy, Training, & Accountability systems.
-Focus of the COPS Office & CNA review centered on LVMPD deadly force issue areas involving: 1) policy & procedures, 2) training & tactics, 3) investigation & documentation, and 4) review.
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Major findings and recommendations include:
- Officer initiated stops are more likely to result in a shooting of an unarmed suspect than any other type of contact.
- (Should conduct uniform training on the legal parameters of officer-initiated contacts - consensual stops/investigative detention, through training videos on constitutional policing issues and through scenario based and role playing training modules).
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Major findings and recommendations include:
Use of Force Policy is comprehensive, but the format is cumbersome and not structured in a clear and concise manner that allows officers to quickly apply guidance in the field.
- LVMPD should separate it’s Use of Force Policy into several smaller specific policies.
- (Include a core policy that serves as a foundation for the other related policies. Stand alone policies should include rifles, shotguns, other firearms, ECD’s, less-lethal shotguns, batons, OC spray, and other less-lethal weapons).
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Major findings and recommendations include:
- De-escalation training is not a requirement and does not include an evaluation component.
- (Should establish an annual requirement for Sgt.’s and below to undergo de-escalation training and formalize assessments of de-escalation tactics in AOST and RBT. Should devote one quarter of it’s defensive tactics training to de-escalation).
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Major findings and recommendations include:
- LVMPD needs to better manage multiple officer situations. Tactical errors & fatalities are more prevalent when multiple officers are on the scene.
- (Ensure that supervisors and officers are prepared to handle multiple officer situations in the context of deadly force. Use reality-based incident command scenarios for critical incidents).
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Major findings and recommendations include:
LVMPD developed a Force Investigation Team (FIT) model in late 2010. In 2012, they stopped one squad handling all officer involved uses of deadly force. Now all 420 squads handle on rotation.
-(Should re-establish this specialized group of investigators in conjunction with the DA’s office that are legal in nature).
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
LVMPD’s organizational reforms initiated:
-Reforms initiatied by LVMPD include:
Forming the Office of Internal Oversight (OIO), updating the Use of Force policy, expanding the scope of the Use of Force Review Board by establishing new findings, releasing the OIO summary reports on OIS’s to the public, and added a “Reverence for Life” statement in the department’s updated Use of Force Policy.
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Technical Assistance Goals:
- Goals of the review and those of the reforms identified by both LVMPD & CNA and -
- The goals of the assessment and technical assistance were to provide LVMPD with recommendations that would help:
- Reduce number of OIS’s
- Reduce the number of persons killed as a result of OIS’s
- Transform LVMPD’s organization & culture as it relates to deadly force
- Enhance officer safety
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Internal & External Accountability Systems that relate to OIS’s:
- Internal accountability systems:
- Force Investigative Team (FIT)
- Critical Incident Review Team (CIRT)
- Use of Force Review Board
- External accountability systems:
- DA’s Office
- Coroner’s Inquest
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
General Order on Use of Force:
-The Order describes parameters for using force, provides a use of force model, standard definitions of terms, and comprises of 11 parts:
Policy, definitions, use of force to effect a detention, an arrest, conduct a search, determine objectively reasonable force, duty to intervene, levels of resistance, levels of control, use of force model, de-escalation, authorized force tools, techniques, equipment, and reportable force incidents.
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Use of Force Review Board developed new “Determinations” for Use of Force findings:
- “Administrative Approval” - No recommandations. U of F was justified and within policy.
- “Tactics/Decision Making” - tactics and/or decision making used were less than satisfactory. Training will be prescribed to address deficiencies.
- “Policy Violation not directly related to Use of Force” - a policy violation was identified but was not connected to the use of force.
- “Policy/Training Failure” - a policy and/or training protocol is inadequate, ineffective, or deficient.
- “Administrative Disapproval” - force used or action taken was not justified and violated policy.
- Accountability Matrix - will ensure that all recommended policy, training, or tactics changes are implemented.
Collaborative Reform Process - CNA/Use of Force Report
Expansion of “Objectively Reasonable” use of force factors
- Traditional 3 factors from Graham v. Connor:
- The severity of the crime
- Whether the subject poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others
- Whether the subject is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight
- New LVMPD factors:
- Influence of drugs/alcohol or the mental capacity of the subject
- Time available to an officer to make a decision
- Availability of officers/resources to de-escalate the situation
- Proximity or access of weapons to the subject
- Environmental factors and/or other exigent circumstances
