Only a small percentage of excessive-force complaints against Tucson police officers in a five-year period were sustained, putting the department within the national average, a review of records show.
From Jan. 1, 2010, through July 8, 2016, the Tucson Police Department received 186 complaints from the public regarding excessive use of force, according to records obtained by the Star.
Of those, seven were found to be valid, resulting in two punishments that involved counseling or corrective action and five officer suspensions.
The remaining 179 complaints were found to have been unsubstantiated, with the departmentβs Office of Professional Standards saying the officers didnβt violate police policy.
The number of complaints filed each year varied greatly, ranging from 19 to 42, according to the records.
The complaints were for uses of force including striking, use of firearms, use of a baton, Taser, pepper spray and handcuffing.
While only a small amount of the complaints were substantiated, one expert says thatβs typical.
βThis is pretty normal for the country,β said Robert Taylor, a professor in the University of Texas at Dallasβ criminology program. βIβve looked at several police departments and found that a remarkably small amount of excessive-force complaints are sustained.β
During the requested time period, the Tucson Police Department sustained 3.8 percent of complaints, which is on average with the 2 percent to 5 percent seen across the country, Taylor said.
Because a lot of complaints are made by witnesses who are seeing the event from a distance, the problem is that those people are only seeing part of the story.
βWitness who see something from afar are only seeing that from a very quick advantage or disadvantage,β Taylor said. βThey donβt understand what happened before or after. All they saw was that one thing.β
If a person is taken to the ground, for example, many times the investigation will reveal that the person was fighting with officers and the was taken down for his or her own good, Taylor said.
However, Taylor said that itβs still important for people to report what may appear to be an excessive use of force.
βI applaud the community for calling the police and saying, βthereβs something wrong here,β and I applaud the Police Department for doing that investigation,β he said.
Police today are aware theyβre likely being filmed and theyβre more concerned about the community and what the community thinks, Taylor said.
TPD updated its rules regarding use of force in late October and has a number of changes in the works as to how the department reviews use-of-force incidents.
A 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling states that an officerβs use of force on a suspect must be objectively reasonable based on the circumstances, which is determined by the seriousness of the offense, immediacy of threat and if the suspect is actively resisting arrest or trying to evade police said Capt. Paul Sayre of TPDβs Office of Professional Standards.
The situation doesnβt have to meet all three criteria and when determining if force is excessive, a review board can only consider what the officer knew at the time, Sayre said.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which Arizona falls under, has asked departments in its jurisdictions to critique officers on actions and decisions leading up to use of force.
TPD has recently made a number of changes into how officers report when they use force and how the department reviews incidents and complaints.
βEven the perception of overuse of force erodes trust within the community, so there has to be robust oversight,β Sayre said.
By August, all officers will be reporting use of force through a computer program called IAPro, which is used by the Department of Justice and police departments across the country.
In addition to the new reporting method, a police supervisor will immediately come to the scene and investigate any use of force, using his or her department-issued phone to take photos and record interviews, rather than waiting until later.
All incidents of force involving impact weapons and higher β except for deadly force β will now go to a force review board made up of the commanders from all of the patrol units, who will decide if the use of force is within policy.
Previously, investigations were handled by an officerβs immediate supervisor and sent up the chain of command.
Sayre believes this will be a more comprehensive and objective way to make decisions, since it doesnβt involve the close connection between an employee and supervisor.
The department will also be initiating a random analysis of lower level uses of force, which include control techniques like striking or taking a person to the ground.
βIn theory, if you have a person that tends to use force a lot at the lower level that they could at some point use higher levels of force,β Sayre said. βThe idea is to intervene and get that employee more training, coaching and mentoring and help them develop better tactics and positions so they donβt have to use higher levels of force.β
For incidents involving use of deadly force the department has changed the system from a board of inquiry to the critical incident review board. The board is chaired by Deputy Chief Chad Kasmar and Capt. Erick Kazmierczak, who heads up the police academy, is vice chairman.
Kazmierczakβs place on the board will allow the department to immediately implement changes to training based on issues identified while the board is reviewing cases, when it used to take up to a year before changes could be made following a review.
Other incident review board members will include patrol lieutenants, a member of the Community Police Advisory Review Board, the departmentβs legal adviser, two attorneys from the City Attorneyβs Office, the departmentβs independent police auditor and an appointed community representative.
In an investigation, six areas will be critiqued: policy violations based on general orders, supervision, tactics and decision making, training, equipment issues and communication. The results of the critique will reviewed by the incident board.
βBy the end result, youβre going to have a comprehensive critique (of the situation,) considerable civilian input from the community and the independent police auditor and there has to be a full consensus on all these decisions,β Sayre said. βThatβs a much more transparent and objective review of our actions than we were doing before.β
The previous review process for deadly force incidents used to take between six months to a year, but under the new review board, decisions about whether the force was justified are expected to be rendered in less than six months.
In deadly force incidents, the office of professional standards acts as the investigative arm for the review board. Their administrative investigation runs parallel to the departmentβs criminal investigation, which will also be presented to the county attorney for review.
Two officers under review
In February, an immigration protest in downtown Tucson sparked a community debate on the departmentβs use of force after body camera footage showed an officer knocking down an elderly female protester.
Three officers sustained minor injuries during the protest and three people were arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault on a police officer, police said.
Two officers are under investigation for the incident, one for using pepper spray, and the review board has just completed its first meeting in the case. Investigators have completed 27 interviews of department employees and reviewed hours of video evidence, Sayre said.
No determination on whether the officersβ use of force was justified has been made.
The Star, meanwhile, obtained investigative summary reports into the five incidents that resulted in officer suspensions, as full internal reports would take several months to make public to the newspaper, according to a department spokesman.
2014
Sgt. Joel Mann, was suspended twice for the same incident, after he shoved a University of Arizona student over a bench during a disturbance following the Wildcatsβ 2014 loss in the NCAA basketball tournament. The incident was caught on video and went viral on the internet.
As a result of the incident, Mann was suspended for 20 hours for violating the departmentβs use of force policy and in a separate investigation, was suspended 60 hours for failing to follow general orders and department procedures, according to the summary report.
The department forwarded the criminal investigation into Mann to the Pima County Attorneyβs Office, which declined to prosecute, saying that although he was overzealous, there was no criminal intent in his actions.
The city ended up settling with the victim, Christina Gardilcic, for $100,000 plus her attorneyβs fees.
Mann is no longer employed by the department.
2013
While arresting a suspect, Officer George Bravo hit the man in the face twice with the butt of his patrol rifle, which is not an approved use of a firearm. The man was not resisting arrest, according to the investigative summary.
Bravo was unable to explain to investigators why he used his rifle in a way that violated department rules.
It was determined he violated six department policies, including general orders which prohibit βcruel, unlawful or improper treatment,β the report said.
A criminal investigation was initiated against Bravo and referred to the county attorney, who declined to prosecute.
Bravoβs supervisor in the incident, Oscar Caballero, was initially suspended for 40 hours for failure to supervise, but he appealed the suspension and it was changed to a written reprimand.
Bravo is still employed by TPD.
2012
The year before, Caballero was suspended for 20 hours for failing to supervise two officers under his command who used excessive force when striking a suspect.
A woman called OPS to report that officers Lenny Wong and Ryan Danaher struck her, and she came in to the station to have her injuries photographed.
Wong and Danaher were both suspended for violating several policies, including expected conduct toward the public and obedience to general orders. Wong was suspended for 40 hours and Danaher for 20, the incident summary shows.
Wong was previously disciplined for assaulting a handcuffed subject, leaving a loaded handgun in his patrol vehicle after the end of his shift and assaulting a woman at a traffic stop, court documents showed.
Wong resigned from TPD in 2014, but Danaher is still employed by the department.
2010
Officer Abel Urzua was suspended 80 hours after he shot a man in the chest and side of the head with a pepperball gun. An internal investigation found that Urzua violated six department policies. He still works for TPD.
