In front of a crowd of 700 to 1,000 people, the voice of Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers cracked while detailing the video he saw involving the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The images and sounds of officer Derek Chauvin killing Floyd with a knee to his neck — for 8 minutes, 46 seconds — horrified Myers. So at the solidarity rally outside Columbus City Hall on June 4, Myers promised the public that none of his officers have been trained to use such techniques. He also said that if he found out one of his officers had used that type of violent, excessive force, they’d be punished to the highest extent of the law.
Since the death of Floyd on May 25, national, state, and local debate has resurged over police brutality and racial injustice.
The brutal takedown shown in Floyd’s death, which is allowed at some law enforcement agencies, has drawn widespread condemnation, including among local law enforcement officials. Thankfully it is not permitted by the Columbus Police Department or the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, which have rightfully spoken out on the measure.
CPD officers and Bartholomew County sheriff’s deputies are trained on a series of techniques used to restrain people based on curriculum from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.
Police are also trained to call for a medic if necessary for a suspect to be checked, or if there is concern about a suspect’s condition at the time of arrest.
Force is not common at either law enforcement agency, with less than 1% of interactions with the public resulting in officers using force, according to local statistics.
A total of 129 of 91,059 calls for service involving CPD officers resulted in the use of force in 2018 and 2019 while Bartholomew County sheriff’s deputies reported using force 28 times out of 80,622 calls for service over the same time period.
Over roughly the first half of this year, CPD officers reported using force 22 times, while Bartholomew County sheriff’s deputies reported four instances.
Those numbers are important in understanding how officers react to calls on the job.
Both law enforcement agencies require all instances of use of force by officers to be reviewed, and measures are in place to raise flags if individual officers show patterns of using excessive force.
All police departments should be transparent with their tactics — and share their data when force was used during an arrest — like BCSO and CPD have.
The public has the right to know the standards officers must meet and how police are held accountable.
While cities across the nation navigate the issue of racism and police violence, it’s encouraging to know that local law enforcement is taking steps in the right direction.
