Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Log on to myAJC.com to read the AJC’s coverage of fatal police shootings in Georgia, and explore an online database of shootings that took place at someone’s home. Go to http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/. Today’s report digs deep into the ongoing controversy over several recent shootings in DeKalb County.
Four questionable shootings over the past two years by DeKalb County police have raised questions about its training and tactics at a time when police shootings nationally are being heavily scrutinized.
The scrutiny heightened after an incident Monday in which DeKalb police officers entered the wrong home on a burglary call and shot an unsuspecting resident, his dog and one of their own officers.
Still, DeKalb police officials say they see a good department being unfairly maligned. DeKalb County Public Safety Director Cedric Alexander rejects the idea that the department needs to significantly revisit its training and says the incidents are getting attention because police violence is the story of the moment.
“This is not a string of incidents, it’s a great story line,” Alexander said. He added, “No matter what police do right now, it’s not right.”
Critics, for their part, say the police leadership is in denial about problems that speak to under-staffing, excessive turnover in the ranks and an abundance of inexperienced officers. Meanwhile, they say, the number of police-related shootings grows.
“The numbers are alarming,” said Gerry Weber, a senior counsel for the Southern Center for Human Rights. “There is in my view a disconnect between policies and practices” in the DeKalb department.
For more than a year The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News have been jointly investigating the frequency and circumstances of police-related use of deadly force in Georgia.
The DeKalb County Police Department, which its chief says is the second largest force in the state, has had 17 fatal police shootings since 2010, the highest number in the state, according to an AJC analysis. Gwinnett police had 14.
Police officials stress that DeKalb is a metropolitan area with some of the most dangerous pockets of crime in the state. In addition, all but one of the those 17 fatal police-related deaths in DeKalb involved people who had a weapon and most of them, police say, were threatening the officer or other people.
The AJC found there has been six DeKalb police-related shootings, four of them fatal, since December.
Police work, by its nature, can quickly escalate into highly charged, emotional and deadly encounters.
In July, DeKalb Officer Chester Lamb was shot five times after he confronted a suspect at the Marquis Pointe apartments in Stone Mountain. The suspect, Frederick Farmer, was killed in the shootout. Lamb is recovering.
Whether you agree with the DeKalb police officials or their critics, the controversy is creating divisions in the community. There has been a demonstration outside the courthouse to protest a fatal police shooting, and, in contrast, a pro-police rally, as well.
DeKalb’s recent police-involved shootings are not the only ones to be scrutinized recently.
In July, the Cobb County district attorney declined to charge a Smyrna police sergeant who shot and killed a man as he fled being served an arrest warrant. the officer said he shot the man to protect a fellow officer in the path of the man’s car.
Last month, a Fulton County grand jury declined to indict a Union City police officer who shot a man in the back in 2011 after he ran from the officer.
In April, there were protests after a woman was shot and killed when police say she opened fire on Atlanta officers from the backseat of a patrol car.
The strong public reaction to police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, North Charleston and Staten Island is changing the way police approach their work, as well as the public’s perception of law enforcement, said Robert Friedmann, a Georgia State University criminal justice professor.
In most instances when police officers discharge their weapon, it is warranted, Friedmann said. But those are overshadowed when there is a mistake or controversy. Since Ferguson, the public scrutiny has been extreme.
“The question many police chiefs and officers are asking themselves is how can you practice policing … when every step you make is under a microscope and distorted,” Friedmann said.
He added that people “are more hostile to policing that I can remember, even going back to the late sixties. Police officers were not popular then.”
‘Questionable uses of force’
Much of the scrutiny about DeKalb’s policing centers on four incidents in which deadly force was used, three of them within the past year. They include Monday’s burglary response as well as the shootings of a 16-year-old who police mistook for a burglar, an unarmed mentally ill veteran who ran at an officer, and a man who summoned 911.
People critical of the police say they see worst-case scenarios emerging out of what could have been low-stakes cases.
“That’s three very questionable uses of force within a nine-month time frame,” said Mawuli Davis, an attorney representing the family of Kevin Davis, the man who was shot and killed in his home by officers he had called there. “What’s the training? What’s going on here where citizens continue to end up dead in DeKalb County? It’s disturbing.”
He added, “The first way to address a problem is to admit you have one. That hasn’t happened.”
DeKalb Interim Police Chief James Conroy believes his department is facing the kind of extreme scrutiny and knee-jerk condemnation that many police departments are seeing around the country in the post-Ferguson world.
Still, it’s not the first time the issue has emerged in DeKalb. Almost 10 years ago DeKalb was defending itself against criticism because of series of fatal police shootings. A special grand jury in 2006 looked at 12 cases and decided 11 of them were justified.
As a result, former officer Torrey Thompson was charged with murdering 21-year-old Lorenzo Matthews. Thompson was one of two officers who fired at Matthews who died after being shot eight times when he confronted the officers and later tried to flee. Thompson was later indicted on murder charges. DeKalb District Attorney Robert James dismissed the charges in 2011 because the Georgia Supreme Court ruled prosecutors could not use in court statements Thompson made to internal affairs investigators.
The second officer was not indicted.
Regarding the current cases, Conroy acknowledged he has unresolved questions regarding at least one of the incidents, the March 9 police shooting and killing of a unarmed veteran who was naked outside his Chamblee apartment complex. Police say the man ran at the officer and ignored warnings to stop during an apparent mental breakdown.
Conroy said the department is awaiting the DA’s action before doing its internal review. Policy prevents him from interviewing the officer before then.
“I have some questions I’d like to ask the officer, such as why he did not use a lower level of force,” Conroy said.
Conroy said it is unfair to group the four controversial incidents together, as each represents a distinct police scenario with no set pattern of police misconduct. Moreover, he said the department has responded to the community’s calls for greater transparency and accountability.
After the fatal police shooting of Davis last December, several community groups requested that the incident be investigated by an outside party. Shortly thereafter, the department adopted a policy in which all fatal police shootings would be reviewed by the GBI.
Officials also plan to outfit officers with body cameras, following a national trend for greater accountability for law enforcement.
In addition, the department has acknowledged when it was wrong, Conroy said. He cited an officer's "unintentional misfire" that wounded a 16-year-old Southwest DeKalb High School student on Sept. 2, 2013.
The officer was searching for a burglary suspect when a teen ran from the scene. The teen was not involved in the burglary. He thought he was being chased for skipping school.
The officer who wounded the teen was suspended without pay for one working day. The internal review revealed the officer had wrongly placed his finger on the trigger of the gun, and pressed the trigger inadvertently when he was startled by the teen.
Each of these shooting incidents is reviewed for flaws in training, he said.
No additional training for the force was deemed necessary after the teen’s shooting, as officials felt the main point - that an officer only touch the trigger when intending to fire - had been sufficiently emphasized in training.
But after the death of the mentally unstable vet, the department ordered all officers to undergo an extra 40-hour training on mental health crisis intervention. The state Peace Officers Standards and Training Council only requires officers to take four hours of such training, Conroy noted.
And after police shot and killed Davis’ dog, officers received additional training on identifying aggressive animals.
DeKalb DA James said he has also taken action to increase the transparency and accountability of his office. Since the Spring, he has taken police-related shootings to what he calls a civil grand jury. That jury has no power to indict, but he said it provides more public input and helps determine whether to forward the case to a criminal grand jury.
While Chief Conroy praised the additional reviews by the civil grand jury and the GBI, he said the additional levels of review can also add time to the process. That can delay the final resolution of a case and the release of important information to the public.
In turn, that leaves more time for public speculation and miscommunication. In a way, that has contributed to the linking together of the four separate cases, he said.
Meanwhile, criticism of cases continues to brew.
Kevin Davis' sister, Delisa Davis, told the AJC that she believes the DeKalb Police Department is broken and she doubts her family will ever recover from how they were treated after an officer shot and killed her brother.
“They just came in shooting. He didn’t even have a chance,” she said.
Police say the case remains under investigation, that the GBI has handed its report to the DA, who plans to take it before the civil grand jury.
Short staffing and turnover
DeKalb police officials acknowledge their department needs more officers. But they insist many departments are equally challenged on staffing and that it has not diminished the quality of county policing.
The department has 835 officers, 141 short of what is allotted in its budget, Conroy said. But the chief says he could use “a few hundred more” to fulfill the county’s policing needs.
To fill vacancies, the department has been having more police academies. From February of 2014 to January of 2015, it held seven academies and graduated 109 recruits.
Conroy noted that the DeKalb police academy training is 26 weeks, twice the time period required by the state.
George Chidi, a Pine Lake councilman, said he sees the staffing problems and high turnover rate contributing to larger problems.
“This is the result of a police force that isn’t experienced enough with managing community relations and not paid well enough to maintain staff,” said Chidi, a former AJC reporter who writes on various websites on politics, public safety and other issues. “This is the result you get. You get a public that doesn’t trust.”
The department has also had problems retaining its leadership, seeing some nine chiefs and interim chiefs since 2001.
Conroy, who is still listed as an interim chief after 22 months on the job, said strides have been made in stemming the loss of officers. Some 57 officers have left the force so far this year; last year at this time it was 79.
In addition, the department has 56 officers with less than 18 months experience, or 6.7 percent of the officers on duty.
Conroy said that figure doesn’t bother him. “Experience is valued,” he said. “But there’s also an advantage to having new, energetic officers.”
DeKalb PD had been accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies since 1991. The most recent accreditation review was March 2014. That review examines policies and procedures to make sure they meet best practices.
“We received a perfect score,” Conroy said.
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