Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4014 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: APRIL 2016 Making policing safer for everyone is the goal by Chuck Wexler and Scott Thomson S ergeants routinely tell their officers that their most impor- tant job is to make it home safely. And it is no wonder why they dispense this advice. With an estimated 350 mil- lion firearms in the United responding to a domestic violence call on her first day on patrol. Unfortunately, this sense of ever-present danger has shaped police training, tac- tics and culture in ways that can lead to responses that are neither proportional nor necessary in situations that don’t involve guns. We need to rethink our tactics in such circumstances. Perhaps the best example is the so-called 21-foot rule. In many police departments, of- ficers are trained to be prepared to shoot if they are within 21 feet of someone with a knife. This can lead to what’s known among the police as a “lawful but awful” response. This is because the legal standard used in police shootings al- lows prosecutors and grand juries to conclude that al- though an officer’s shooting of a suspect may be ques- tionable, it isn’t criminal. The standard came from a 1989 Supreme Court deci- sion, Graham v. Connor. The justices ruled that an officer’s use of force must be “objectively reasonable.” But the court went on to caution that “police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments — in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolv- ing — about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation.” This standard can lead to results like this: A mentally ill person is on the street throwing rocks and is shot to death minutes or even seconds after the police ar- rive. The shooting is found to be legally justified (lawful), but to many who witness it or see it later on video, it does not appear to be proportional or necessary (awful). In other words, just be- cause the police can legally use deadly force doesn’t always mean they should. Thirty percent of 990 fatal police shootings in 2015 did not involve someone with a gun, according to an ex- amination by The Washington Post. In nine percent of the shootings, the subject was unarmed, and in 16 percent, armed with a knife. The re- maining 5 percent involved people who used a vehicle as a weapon. Some 200 law enforce- ment officials from across the country met recently to finalize a year’s worth of work to take our profession to a standard higher than what Gra- ham v. Connor requires. The goal is to prevent law- ful-but-awful outcomes while increasing of- ficer safety. We looked at how officers are trained for situations in which a person is armed with an edged weapon like a knife. Although these confronta- tions can be extremely dan- gerous, the police should not automatically handle these people as they would a gun- Although these confrontations can be extremely dangerous, the police should not automatically handle these people as they would a gunman. Often there are ways to defuse these confrontations without resorting to deadly force. Continued on page 22 A defibrillator is the simple device responsible for saving countless lives, including the life of a 59-year-old Chicago police officer at the 11th District police station. When the officer went into cardiac arrest recently, the defibrillator undoubtedly helped save the officer’s life, along with his fellow officers who jumped into action. Jordan Parks and Phillip Renault applied compres- sion while Danielle Mul- ligan did mouth to mouth resuscitation and used the defibrillator to shock the officer’s heart back to life. “I count to the song ‘Stay- ing Alive’ to make sure we keep the same rhythm when applying the compressions,” explained Officer Phillip Renault, who is also credited with providing invaluable assistance. “We all took this job so we can help people. We don’t ever think we’re go- ing to help someone who’s a brother in blue, but we were able to and that made it really special,” Danielle Mulligan told reporters with ABC 7 News. The station has only been equipped with a defibrilla- tor for a little over a month after state lawmakers passed a law last summer requiring all police stations to have one. It was prompted by the death two years ago of 59- year-old Detective Dennis McLaughlin. He suffered a heart attack and there was no defibrilla- tor available. The officers here are grateful to have it now. “The defibrillator went and did its job and between Officer Parks and Officer Renault – they did the com- pressions – she breathed for him, and they saved his life,” said Rodney Kincaide. The officer was taken to Rush University Medical Center where he is recov- ering. The police are plan- ning a ceremony to honor Chicago Det. McLaughlin, whose death prompted the governor to sign the bill which mandates defibrilla- tors at all police stations. Cops save officer Anyone who considers themselves a life saver should know how to use a defibrillator. States, officers daily face the threat of gun violence, mak- ing this country far more dangerous for our officers, deputies and troopers. The recent shooting of Ashley Guindon, a po- lice officer in Prince Wil- liam County in Virginia, is a reminder of how dan- gerous policing can be. She was shot dead while