SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz Police Division has made quite a few updates to its Taser stun gun, supervisory assessment and communication insurance policies after the most recent assessment by a city-hired unbiased auditor.
The March 2023 report by OIR Group’s Michael Gennaco and Samara Marion, launched final week, delves into almost three dozen complaints arising from citizen and inner complaints filed between 2019 and 2022. A number of of the 33 complaints — the investigations for which didn't conclude till 2022 — resulted in inner mandates for self-discipline starting from counseling and coaching to debriefing and full exoneration. In summaries offered within the report, showing earlier than the Santa Cruz Metropolis Council on Tuesday afternoon, the themes of two complaints had been described as now not working for the division, although the context made it unclear if the standing change was associated to the grievance.
The unbiased auditor’s report recommends that the police division make 21 coverage updates — of which 16 had been made as of the publishing of the report. Seven of the suggestions really useful updates to its Taser use coverage and one other eight handled officer use-of-force practices.
Lots of the Santa Cruz police recordsdata reviewed “mirrored thorough investigations and sound conclusions” and division management had taken “vital steps to handle its backlog of circumstances and implement suggestions” after final yr’s unbiased auditor report, in accordance with the auditor. In the meantime, the report really useful that the division “re-evaluate its normal for Taser use and strengthen its use of drive assessment procedures.”
The report summarized 23 of the complaints towards the division within the prior 4 years, beginning with a 2021 case through which officers had been known as out for a welfare verify on an individual who had been yelling on the road for 2 to 3 hours. A division lieutenant reviewing case physique digital camera footage eight weeks later referred the case for inner investigation, in accordance with the report. In the course of the encounter, two officers used a Taser on the person confronted by police six occasions over a cumulative 22 seconds, and one officer was shocked by one other officer within the course of.
“The lieutenant’s considerations had been well-founded they usually weren't sufficiently addressed by the Division’s subsequent analysis of the incident,” in accordance with the auditor’s report. The division’s inner investigation exonerated the officers of any use-of-force violations and ordered tactical debriefing and de-escalation coaching for an officer, plus tactical debriefing for a supervisor on scene.
Subsequently, the police division’s use of drive coverage has been up to date, amongst different updates, to take away “or is bodily resisting” as a justification for why a Taser could also be deployed. The remaining texts now permits for its use when “the topic is violent.”