Clark killing prompts bill to toughen police shooting rules
SACRAMENTO — Two Democratic state legislators want to toughen the standard for when a police officer can shoot a suspect, a proposal prompted by the recent killing of an unarmed African American man in Sacramento.
Police would be allowed to use lethal force only when it’s necessary to prevent imminent death or injury and when there is no reasonable alternative, under a bill proposed Tuesday by Assembly members Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, and Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento.
Officers can now use “reasonable force” when attempting to make an arrest, a standard set by state law and the courts. Deadly force is justified when an “objectively reasonable” officer would have reacted the same under the circumstances, according to a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court interpretation of the Fourth Amendment.
Stanford law Professor Robert Weisberg said California is free to impose a tougher standard than the Supreme Court set because the state would be giving more protection to civilians, not less. Weisberg said the bill would put more scrutiny on what an officer did to defuse a situation before it escalated to a shooting.
“This could be significant,” Weisberg said. “Right now, we don’t look at the steps leading up to the fatal encounter. They look at right before they shot.”
In a news conference at the state Capitol on Tuesday, advocates and lawmakers stood beside charts with data showing that police departments with more restrictive use-of-force policies kill fewer people per capita. Weber and McCarty said the fact that young black men are killed at a higher rate than other groups shows it’s time to make a change.
The bill will face a tough road in the state Legislature, which has routinely sided with law enforcement groups on issues involving police policies. The California Police Chiefs Association and the California State Sheriffs’ Association declined to comment, saying they had not seen the bill’s language yet.
“We are not saying that law enforcement can never use deadly force — we are saying oftentimes there are other alternatives that can be used,” Weber said. “We saw that with the video (of Stephon Clark). There were other alternatives.”
The legislators introduced their bill in reaction to the March 18 killing of Clark, 22, who was shot by two Sacramento police officers responding to reports of a suspect breaking into vehicles. The Sacramento County coroner has not said how many times Clark was struck by bullets, but a private autopsy paid for by Clark’s family found the 22-year-old was shot eight times, with six of the bullets hitting him from behind.
Body camera footage of the shooting that the Sacramento Police Department released shows officers yelled “gun!” just before opening fire. The officers had chased Clark into the backyard of his grandmother’s house, police said.
Clark was holding only a cell phone. His family has called for the officers to be charged with murder.
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said the bill would lead to fewer injuries to civilians and officers by improving officer training and community trust.
“You are seeing more progressive departments already operating internally with these guidelines,” Gascón said.
Clark’s death ignited days of protests across Sacramento, with demonstrators shutting down major streets and a freeway, disrupting a City Council meeting and preventing thousands of fans from getting into Golden 1 Center to attend two Sacramento Kings basketball games.
Last week, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the state Justice Department would work with Sacramento police to investigate Clark’s death and review the agency’s practices.