In years past, police officials likely would have called for full, time-consuming investigations and patience from angry citizens until all the facts were in. Not this time.<\/p>\n

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo fired four officers within 24 hours, and the heads of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association promptly issued statements of support for that move and denounced the prolonged suffocation of Floyd captured on cellphone video and soon streamed around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe death of Mr. Floyd is deeply disturbing and should be of concern to all Americans,\u201d said the Major Cities Chiefs, headed by Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. \u201cThe officers\u2019 actions are inconsistent with the training and protocols of our profession and MCCA commends Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo for his swift and decisive action to terminate the employment of the officers involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steven R. Casstevens, the head of the IACP and chief of the Buffalo Grove, Ill., department, expressed his sympathy to Floyd\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaw enforcement officers are trained to treat all individuals, whether they are a complainant, suspect, or defendant, with dignity and respect,\u201d Casstevens said. \u201cThis is the bedrock principle behind the concepts of procedural justice and police legitimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casstevens added, \u201cNo single incident should define an agency or the profession. As police leaders, we must be willing to question and denounce actions that are wrong so to continue to build trust within our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Miami, Police Chief Jorge Colina issued a video statement on Twitter saying he was \u201cdeeply disturbed by what we saw on that video. I stand with Chief Arradondo of the Minneapolis Police Department with the swift action he took once he was made aware of that video.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floyd apparently was arrested after he was suspected of attempting to pass a counterfeit bill in a Minneapolis business Monday evening, police said. He was then held down on the street, handcuffed and unarmed, with one officer\u2019s knee on his neck. Floyd complained he couldn\u2019t breathe, as a bystander streamed the video live on Facebook. Floyd appears to become unconscious during the video. The Minneapolis Police Department identified <\/a>the four officers involved as Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng.<\/p>\n

For police officials who have been moving to improve relations with their communities by reducing their use of force, it was a sobering setback.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be a tendency for people to look at that horrible video and say, \u2018Nothing has changed,\u2019 \u201d said Chuck Wexler of the Police Executive Research Forum, which trains police departments nationwide in de-escalation techniques. \u201cAnd that is so wrong. So much has changed in policing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police departments largely have better training now, Wexler said, and PERF\u2019s often-promoted theory that officers respect the \u201csanctity of life\u201d was cited by Arradondo in his first news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese officers were held immediately accountable,\u201d Wexler said. \u201cYears ago, there would have been a long investigation. The first thing the police have to do is take responsibility. They did that. Watching this video makes every decent working cop sick, and it makes their job harder because the public will say nothing has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re never going to achieve perfection,\u201d Acevedo said in an interview. \u201cThis is why we have to be vigilant. Actions have to have consequences. I really commend Chief Arradondo for acting quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acevedo noted that state laws and collective bargaining agreements in many cities and states prohibit chiefs from terminating officers without extended processes, and that he could not have immediately fired officers in a similar situation in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at policing from 20 to 30 years ago,\u201d Acevedo said, \u201calthough we still have these egregious incidents, when you look at the total number of [police] contacts [with the public], they\u2019re small in number. Still, one is one too many. And it\u2019s not just one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus tweeted that the video showed an \u201cindefensible use of force that good officers everywhere are appalled by \u2026 Conduct like this anywhere makes it more difficult for police everywhere to build community trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email, Magnus said that \u201cbeing as transparent as possible with the community, including involving them in the training police receive, especially scenario-based training, is key to building community trust. Officers in our department practice de-escalation techniques with community volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that \u201cwhen residents see how we train, what we expect, and that we hold our officers to this level of performance, they have more confidence in our agency overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though groups such as PERF and civil rights organizations have pushed for de-escalation training, at least one measure of police use of force has not changed in recent years: fatal officer-involved shootings.<\/p>\n

Since The Washington Post began counting fatal shootings by police nationwide<\/a> five years ago, 2019 had the highest number of such killings: 1,004. The totals in the previous years were 992 in 2018, 986 in 2017, 962 in 2016 and 994 in 2015. There have been 400 killings at the hands of police in the United States this year, and Floyd\u2019s death will not be included in The Post\u2019s database because it counts only shootings.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials were unhappy that the FBI, which maintains the national Uniform Crime Reporting database, did not keep its own accurate count of police killings, and in 2018 the bureau announced its own National Use-of-Force Data Collection project. Police departments were to submit their data on a variety of force incidents, \u201cwhich will provide the public with necessary facts about law enforcement use of force in the course of their duties and ultimately strengthen the nation\u2019s confidence in law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at the Major Cities Chiefs conference last May, Amy Blasher, the head of the FBI\u2019s crime statistics management unit, said only about 20 percent of the nation\u2019s departments were submitting data. The FBI has not responded to inquiries about the project, and no report has been issued for 2019.<\/p>\n

Jim Burch, president of the National Police Foundation, said in an email that \u201cthe video we\u2019ve all now seen is distressing and hard for anyone to watch \u2026 these actions, and inaction, jeopardize the gains that have been made through the sacrifices and courage of many. While the full investigation may reveal additional details and facts that are unknown to most of us today, we should all come together in agreement that the glimpse we have into this encounter is not consistent with the oath that officers take or the courage and integrity that the vast majority display each and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police chiefs across the United States, many of whom have been pushing their officers to de-escalate tense situations and decrease their use of force, responded with disgust Wednesday to the death of George Floyd after an encounter with Minneapolis officers and moved to reassure their communities that they would not tolerate such brutality.In years past,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4893,298],"class_list":{"0":"post-37127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-chiefs","9":"tag-police"},"yoast_head":"\n