Carolyn Fath
Police Chief Mike Koval: ‘I do not believe that my department has issues of rogue cops or systemic, pervasive racism.’
The shooting death of Tony Robinson, an unarmed biracial teenager, has drawn references not only to Ferguson, Mo., where unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in August, but to another police shooting in Madison in the fall of 2012. In that incident, Paulie Heenan, a 30-year-old white musician, was fatally shot by Stephen Heimsness, who was subsequently fired from the force for other reasons.
The officer shooting death of Heenan lit a fire under his friends Amelia and Nathan Royko Maurer, who have since been on a mission to change the police department's policy on the use of deadly force. The married couple even took the police department's nine-week citizen academy program this fall to better understand how and why police officers do what they do.
"I'm biased, but I'm going to work as hard as I can to not have a bias," says Amelia, who lobbied hard to get Heimsness fired from his job. "I wanted to learn their perspective about what they do for their jobs."
During one of the sessions, Amelia asked a police officer to share one time an officer used deadly force that was considered excessive. Amelia says the officer refused. "Instead, he gave me an example of where an officer should have used deadly force, but didn't."
The response stunned her. "You don't have an example of excessive force? Really? You are screaming bias now."
She struggles to understand how sometimes officers can "talk down" someone behaving erratically, while at other times the incident ends with deadly force. "Why do reactions span from one end of the spectrum to the other, and why is it legal to do so?"
The ACLU-Wisconsin this week also questioned the Madison Police Department's policy on use of force. Noting that Robinson is the third officer-shooting victim in the last 10 months, executive director Chris Ahmuty declared that "Madison has a problem that cannot be ignored."
"Whatever this problem's causes may be, In that incident, Paulie Heenan, a 30-year-old white musician, was fatally shot and other types of misconduct, including biased policing," Ahmuty added.
Another critic is Madison attorney David Sparer, who lives in the Marquette neighborhood where both Heenan and Robinson were shot. "It seems [Madison police] are trained to use their gun too often, and trained that if they shoot, they should shoot to kill," he says. "That is the problem."
Sparer says he does not want to leave officers defenseless, but would like to see Madison come up with new, creative training that would "put the highest possible value on never killing someone."If, he adds, "that means carrying more powerful clubs to whack people with, instead of pulling out a gun, then let's do that."
'Lots of alternatives'
Officer guidelines for use of deadly force can be found in the police department's policy manual under chapter 6-100. Cheri Maples, a former Madison police captain who criticized Heimsness for drawing his gun when approaching the crime scene, points out that the policy recognizes a legalandmoral obligation to use force wisely and judiciously.
"You should always use the minimum amount of force required," says Maples, who wants to make clear she knows nothing about the Robinson shooting and is speaking in general terms. "That doesn't mean deadly force wouldn't be the minimum level you'd start with in certain situations. But when using force you can always go up the ladder, but you can't go down."
The non-deadly force policy, in chapter 6-200, lists these options, starting with a simple police presence and amping up to compliance holds, control devices like pepper spray and Tasers, and intermediate weapons.
Police Chief Mike Koval says the department trains officers in all these options. "Some people think we are rooted in this sort of toe-to-toe confrontation, when in fact we work on movement, cover and distance all the time as training modalities."
Koval says the department's policy is reviewed each year, but has not changed since the death of Heenan. But, he adds, "when you're dealing with something as precious as life, more time and attention is always being spent in training at looking at critical incidents."
Because of the recent high-profile shootings of unarmed young black men nationwide, and because black men are disproportionately present in the criminal justice system, some people have charged that Robinson's shooting is racially based.
Stan Davis, a local African American lawyer, doesn't go that far, but does say that the "largest contributing factor" to the spate of shootings nationwide "are the biases that we all have because of the images and information that we are subjected to over our lifetimes.By the time we are teens, most of us view black males as scary and inherently violent, and the lives of black males less valuable than those of others.That would explain why an officer might have a quicker trigger finger when dealing with a black male in a stressful and potentially dangerous situation."
Koval agrees that "everyone has an unconscious bias," but says what is key is how that bias manifests itself.
"And in the case of the use of a deadly force, if in fact that was the overriding factor that led to this decision, then clearly the liability for the department is heavy," says Koval referring to the Robinson shooting. "But I don't believe that anybody can comment based on the fact that nobody knows the various facts, only DCI [the Division of Criminal Investigation] does. I do not believe that my department has issues of rogue cops or systemic, pervasive racism."
Rush to judgment
Nevertheless, some activists have called the Robinson shooting a "murder," claiming Kenny used unnecessary force. The rush to judgment might sting, but rank-and-file officers are not fooled, says Koval.
"I think you'd have to be naïve to think that the officers who daily strap on a bullet-proof vest and take a pledge to offer selfless service to total strangers would be co-opted into this characterization of us being murderers. Obviously we have sought out this profession because we want to help others."
Koval says most protesters have been respectful of police, but some have not.
"Some of the missives and pejoratives and even threats that have been directed at them over protracted periods of times is really disconcerting," he says. "Frankly, some of the most insidious stuff has been directed at my African American officers."
The executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, which is representing Kenny, says these attacks do take a toll.
"No officer wants to hear that," says Jim Palmer. "But they do respect Madison's activist culture and [citizens'] right to speak out and pose legitimate questions."
Palmer urges people not to render judgment until more facts are known. He says he has faith in the new process for investigating fatal shootings, which now calls for an outside agency to handle the probe.
"At end of the day, when there is an investigative report that the public can evaluate, that's the time and the foundation upon which to really engage in meaningful dialogue about how this department serves its community," says Palmer.
But attorney Sparer is glad there is already a lot of discussion around the department's use of force policy and training methods. "That's how it's going to change -- by complaining."
