Lethal force: Recent shootings raise questions over effectiveness of police use-of-force training

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/02/lethal-force-recent-shootings-raise-questions-over-effectiveness-of-police-use-of-force-training/

This articles discusses, and provides a general brief overview of many use of force situations, mostly lethal, that Canadian police officers have faced in the past, and will likely continue to face.The author uses many examples of said events, including the well publicized recent deaths of Sammy Yatim, the 18 year old shot to death on a Toronto streetcar in September 2013, and the 2007 shooting death of Paul Boyd, a bipolar man shot 8 times on a downtown Vancouver street. Exploring all the angles of police tactics, such as verbal deescalation vs use of force, it becomes evident that there is no clear cut answer to solving the issue of individuals dying at the hands of the police officers often forced to shoot them.

In recent years, evidence such as eyewitness testimony and especially video or other graphical recordings have come to paint a disturbing picture of lethal force in Canada, often apparently unjustified. From a taser death at Vancouver International to the shooting of a schizophrenic on a Toronto bus in 1997, one could come to the conclusion that rampant and abusive use of firearms, physical force, and compliance devices appears to be on the rise in Canada. Some striking facts mentioned include the moderate sized city of Hamilton having had 4 fatal police shootings in the past 7 years, with Canada on average dealing with a dozen uses of lethal force by law enforcement per year. At first glance, many people could easily decry the firing of 8 shots into a single individual as excessive, just as any amount of shooting at an unarmed or lesser armed individual as brutality. Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant to Canada was tasered 5 times by different officers while unarmed, in a secure area. But unless law enforcement agencies across Canada happen to host large amounts of psychopathic or sadistic individuals, far more than the average per given population, the cause and subsequent fix to police use of force may not be as simple as finger-pointing at deliberate malicious acts by rogue officers.

More likely than malice, factors that play roles in unnecessarily high usage of force often turn out to be things such as inexperience, poor judgement, stress, and poor training. Fight-or-flight reflexes, time dilation, and high levels of adrenaline all impair rational and cool-headed judgement  even in the most highly trained police officers Although police forces may make mistakes that can cost lives, criminal law in Canada distinguishes between acts caused by ill-intent and mistake. While borderline negligent at times, the majority of police officers act in good faith, with the intention of saving lives. In a 2007 article written by criminology expert Professer Rick Parent, he states that it is absolutely conceivable that a police officer be forced to take the time to explore and evaluate every possible option available at any given situation. Instead, an officer is often forced to act with limited knowledge and good faith that acting quickly may help protect individuals.

While independent civilian watchdogs are necessary to objectively evaluate use of force situations and invoke some accountability, no outside evaluation of past events is ever perfect. It's due to these impossibilities in judging every police shooting perfectly, that society (and police investigative forces) often awards a great leeway to police officers involved in lethal action, sometimes to the point of public outrage when a perceived injustice such as excessive use force is not prosecuted. Even if in many cases disciplinary actions may be in order, as Clifton Purvis of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team stated in regards to the average police officer, "I am almost certain the last thing they planned to do when they went of to work that day was engage in lethal violence." At the end of the day, topics to do with police use of lethal force comprises a wide spectrum of events, policies, training procedures, and deaths. While taking steps towards police transparency and objective investigating of incidents may serve to bring a greater sense of justice and accountability, the issue of police use of lethal force is a complicated one that will likely require much inquiry in the future.