CMPD chief says de-escalation is the goal in revised use of force policy
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said Tuesday that he will clearly cite de-escalation as police officers’ goal when the department’s revised use of force policy is finished by the end of October.
“The goal always is to de-escalate, and we’re going to make sure you see that in writing,” Putney told members of the Charlotte Citizens Review Board, an advisory panel that recommended guidelines to Putney for the use of force during police encounters with suspects.
For much of 2019, Putney and others at CMPD have been in talks with groups such as the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP and the Safe Coalition, which have advocated for improved de-escalation training for police officers across the state. CMPD has also been gathering feedback from the review board and internally from police officers on possible changes to the department’s use-of-force policy.
In early summer, the Citizens Review Board unveiled several significant policy recommendations, including one that already has seen action. Board members said they want officer-involved shootings in Charlotte to be investigated by an outside police agency instead of by fellow CMPD officers.
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather announced in August that he would soon begin seeking outside investigations, and Putney expressed support for that change.
In recent talks with the Citizens Review Board, Putney said CMPD emphasizes to both new and experienced police officers the importance of de-escalation tactics to defuse tense encounters.
Putney, however, has also repeatedly highlighted how the presence of a gun or another weapon limits an officer’s practical ability to de-escalate. He reiterated that to the board on Tuesday, saying he couldn’t agree with the board’s recommendation that an officer first “exhaust all reasonable alternatives to the use of deadly force” at a scene.
“It’s an unreasonable expectation” to place on officers who encounter a person pointing a rifle at them, Putney told the board. “ ... The gun is a game changer.”
“It’s hard to de-escalate when you don’t get communication and cooperation,” Putney similarly said at an April news conference after the death of Danquirs Franklin, who appeared to be lowering a gun toward the ground when he was shot and killed by a CMPD officer.
The chief addressed all other recommendations from the board, including that officers apply first aid to the person they shot. Putney said all officers will undergo advanced first aid in the next year-and a-half.
Putney told the board that CMPD considers “the sanctity of protection of human life” as a core value.
“That is why we exist,” he said. “... You want to save lives, not take them.”
The board applauded Putney after he went through his responses to each of the board’s recommendations during the 1 1/2 hour meeting at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center.
“You didn’t have to let us be involved in this,” a board member told the chief. “Thank you.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 8:51 PM.