Barrier report: Police need more training
STAMFORD — Even though Steven Barrier led police on a foot chase, he was not combative when officers took him into custody shortly after midnight on Oct. 23, 2019 in the woods near Home Depot.
Barrier, 23, told officers he was too exhausted to walk, so they carried him to a police cruiser parked in the store lot on West Main Street. It was 1:43 a.m.
Barrier asked the officer who was driving to turn on the air conditioning in the rear of the cruiser. The officer opened a window.
At 1:51 a.m. the cruiser arrived at police headquarters on Bedford Street. During the eight-minute ride, Barrier lost consciousness, though he had a pulse and was breathing.
Officers carried him into a holding area and called an ambulance. It was 1:55 a.m. The ambulance arrived five minutes later.
Emergency Medical Technicians worked on Barrier for 26 minutes. At 2:26 a.m. they transported him to Stamford Hospital. At 3:10 a.m. he was dead.
A medical examiner found no wounds or trau
ma or evidence of use of a Taser or other instrument. The young Black man, who struggled with mental illness, had died of coronary artery disease with contributing factors of bipolar disorder, the medical examiner reported.
But the Barrier case, which began as a domestic violence call, is far from concluded.
‘Lack of consensus’
His mother, Valerie Jaddo, does not believe her son’s heart failed. Socialjustice groups that have protested since another Black man, George Floyd, died May 25 on a street in Minneapolis with a police officer’s knee on his neck have taken up Jaddo’s cause.
In the most recent march on Aug. 8, protesters in downtown Stamford clashed with police. Nine officers were injured, including two who required arm or hand surgery. Six protesters were arrested and several were hurt.
The city has posted on its website recommendations from an Incident Review Panel convened to determine how the Stamford Police Department can
improve its response to incidents such as the one that resulted in the death of Steven Barrier.
One paragraph in the report illustrates where the panel believes the department needs to get better.
It says officers in the holding area at police headquarters continued to assess Barrier’s medical condition during the five minutes they waited for EMS to get there but were “coming up with conflicting ways to potentially address it.”
“There was a lack of consensus on what to do until medical first responders arrived,” the report reads. “No one there immediately assumed command of the incident. One supervisor peered in but did not intervene further. Another one gave an update to the commanding officer, assisted in maintaining an airway, and monitored his condition.”
Panel weighs in
There’s a lot to do, the Incident Review Panel concluded. Police Chief Tim Shaw, who was sworn in six months after Barrier died, said the panel’s report is fair.
The panel members were Police Commissioner Robert Figueroa; state Rep. Patricia Billie Miller, D-145th; Pastor Robert
Jackson of Bethel AME Church; Program Director Maryellen Estrada of Stamford Alternative in the Community; police Lt. Louis DeRubeis; Sgt. Jennifer Pinto; Officer Christopher Terrell; and Officer Adriana Molina.
Among their recommendations:
⏩ All officers should be certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, with follow-up training to maintain proficiency.
⏩ Officers are certified in Emergency Medical Response in the police academy but their certifications are allowed to expire. Those certifications should be maintained.
⏩ A number of officers should be certified at the higher level of Emergency Medical Technician.
⏩ Suspects involved in foot pursuits and other stressful events should be medically evaluated before they are transported to jail.
⏩ An automatic external defibrillator, which delivers an electric shock to restore heart rhythm, should be placed in the jail area.
⏩ The department should have a dedicated mentalhealth unit that works with the city’s Community Care Team of about 60 organizations, including mentalhealth, substance-abuse and housing providers.
⏩ More officers should be certified to serve on the Crisis Intervention Team, trained to recognize individuals in distress, and assigned to shifts or squads so they are always available.
⏩ More training is needed in the two-year-old use of body-worn cameras. “There should be a corrective action plan in place to ensure that the cameras are on at all times,” the report states.
⏩ The department should inform citizens about its policies and create a Citizen Review Board to expand transparency.
⏩ The panel concluded “there is a great need” to review and update department policies, including putting in writing one on handling cases involving persons with a mental illness.
What’s changed
Shaw said he agrees. The department two months ago contracted with a company that will update all policies, the chief said.
“We’re going to redo them so we end up with state-level accreditation, which this department never had,” Shaw said. “Policies get outdated; you have to change with the times.”
A defibrillator has been placed near the jail, and the department reminds officers at line-up to turn on body-worm cameras, Shaw said.
The department is making headway in certifying officers to serve on Crisis Intervention Teams, which recognize individuals in distress and quickly identify the kind of care they need. The department at its peak had 152 CIT-certified officers, which dropped to 82 with retirements. Sixteen officers are in training and another 40 will be trained by the end of the year, the chief said.
The department is working with the city’s Community Care Team to have a mental-health provider available for some police calls, Shaw said. The department also has begun a mental-health initiative through its Special Victims Unit, he said.
“We’re at ground level of a future pilot program,” Shaw said. “We’re trying to find the best way to go about it.”
The recommendation to medically evaluate suspects involved in foot pursuits before jailing them is under discussion, Shaw said.
“It’s not mandated policy at this point but since the review there’s an uptick in officers calling for ambulances,” Shaw said.
Other panel recommendations — certifying officers in CPR, EMR and as EMTs — require money at a time when budgets have been hit hard in the coronavirus pandemic, he said.
‘They failed us’
But Jaddo, Barrier’s mother, said she has learned nothing in the 10 months since her son died that gives her satisfaction.
“The officer who was driving asked if he should take my son to the hospital or the jail, and they said jail,” she said, a point included in the panel’s report. “They drove past the hospital to go to the police station when my son needed help.”
She feels that no one has been held accountable, Jaddo said.
“These officers are still out patrolling the streets,” she said. “They are sworn to serve the community and they failed us.”
She is not at the table during discussions about the case involving her son, Jaddo said.
“They don’t do anything more than say everything’s OK,” she said. “When they do what they have to do to get justice for my son, then we can talk about policy and procedure.”