State’s new deadly force law could boost police training.
‘Use-of-force’ law’s goal is to help officers handle deadly situations
Officers could get more training on how to defuse tense situations and head off potentially deadly encounters under a California law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday that aims to reduce police shootings, according to experts on police tactics.
But Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing said he sees little difference between what the new “use-of-force” law requires and the training officers in his department already receive.
“I don’t see substantial changes to our training, because things like de-escalation, crisis intervention — things of that nature are already woven into many aspects of our training,” Swing said, adding that he doesn’t expect the scenarios used to train officers in when and how much force should be used will change “in any meaningful way” as a result of the law.
Supporters of the law, including Newsom, have described the legislation as a landmark change that makes California’s use-offorce standard among the most stringent in the country.
It is not yet clear how the new law will affect police officer training or how long it will take to provide any new training to the over 80,000 sworn law enforcement officers across the state. And it is likely to be years before it’s known whether the new standard ultimately reduces the number of fatal officer-involved shootings in California, as the law’s supporters hope it will, or makes policing more dangerous for officers, as some law enforcement groups have cautioned it will do.
The new law requires that police officers use deadly force only when “necessary,” in response to an imminent threat of death or serious injury, while the previous statue required only that the use of force be “reasonable.” But as the result of an amendment, the law does not define “necessary,” leaving it open to interpretation by police departments.
That change and other amendments to address concerns from law enforcement groups led some police reform advocates who initially supported the legislation, authored by Shirley Weber, a Democratic assemblywoman from San Diego, to turn against it.
“Nothing is going to change” under the new law said Rosie Chavez, an organizer with the social justice group Silicon Valley De-Bug, one of the groups that pulled its endorsement of the law.
But while its impact on some police agencies may ultimately be minor, supporters say the legislation is a step in the right direction, because California’s previous law set among the lowest standards for the use of force in the country, and the rate of fatal police shootings in the state is higher than the national average.
Supporters say the statute could spur law enforcement
agencies that are not yet training officers in deescalation tactics — methods aimed at keeping officers and citizens safe in potentially explosive encounters — to finally do so.
“The hope is that this will force agencies that have really lagged behind professional norms to catch up,” said University of South Carolina law professor Seth Stoughton, who studies police use of force statutes.
As a result of the law, officers might receive new training in building rapport and getting people to comply with orders without resorting to force, or learn to identify the circumstances when it’s appropriate to wait for more help to arrive before approaching a suspect, Stoughton said.
That’s because the new law requires prosecutors to examine not just the moment that force was used, but also the officer’s actions leading to that point, to see if an officer’s actions might have improperly escalated the situation, according to Stanford law professor Robert Weisberg.
Under the new law, officers could face criminal charges if a prosecutor finds that although they used deadly force appropriately, ”there was no need to get to the fatal point,” he said.
Take, for instance, the Feb. 9 police shooting of 20-year-old Willie McCoy in the drive-through of a Vallejo Taco Bell restaurant. Police said McCoy, who was asleep in the driver’s seat of the car, had a gun on his lap and moved forward before six officers fatally shot him. Under the new law, all of the officers’ tactics leading up to that point would be subject to scrutiny, including their decision to surround the car from a few feet away rather than take cover, a tactic an attorney for McCoy’s family criticized.
McCoy’s family and others in Vallejo have called for the officers to face criminal charges, something that almost never happens in police shootings. An independent use of force expert concluded in a report released by Vallejo officials that the officers acted appropriately.
The Solano County District Attorney’s Office has yet to rule on whether the shooting was justified.
How many departments could ultimately need additional training as a result of the new law is also unclear.
Swing, the Morgan Hill police chief and a former president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said he could not think of any departments that do not already provide some form of de-escalation training for officers.
A spokeswoman for the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which will play a key role in implementing the law, said the commission will update state police training standards to reflect the new law, but did not detail what those changes will be.