Yeah. Chief Koval finally got it, after several people have died, he’s changed the policy telling police to wait for back up unless their is a threat to someone’s safety (not property).
The language that appears new is:
Officers shall not disregard backup, if so assigned by dispatch. Additionally, officers shall wait for backup before physically approaching any involved subject(s), unless an officer reasonably believes there is a significant risk of bodily injury to any person(s).
Supervisors are expected to routinely monitor calls for service to ensure these guidelines and protocols are being followed. It is realized, however, that it may occasionally be necessary, when circumstances dictate, for a supervisor to direct a course of action outside of these guidelines.
Officers with questions about being dispatched to a call should contact the O.I.C. or a field supervisor, and should not question the dispatcher.
The policy is 12 pages long, but this is near the beginning
These policies are effective 10/3/16. Sounds like many people were just finding out about them yesterday for some reason. Somewhere there is a memo or communication from Koval regarding these changes. Will share when I get a copy.
I suppose we still will have the same “reasonably believes” problems as with other cases, but could some of our recent high profile cases have turned out very differently if officers had waited for backup? This was my first though about the Michael Schumacher killing when I read the story yesterday.
Greg Gelebuik comments on this last killing by police:
Greg Gelembiuk: Rivera should have waited for backup. Shouldn’t have opened the door. Should have maintained distance and cover. Was probably barking orders, in the way most MPD officers do in such situations, which will tend to escalate people in crisis. He shouldn’t have gotten out the AR15 – holding an AR15 makes handling such situations more difficult (e.g. officer ideally would have both hands free). He could have closed the door, to provide a physical barrier between himself and Schumacher. Also, MPD policy prohibits use of tasers in such situations, where there isn’t another officer on scene with gun drawn and ready to shoot (that’s a bad policy). Another avoidable death of someone in crisis. 11 of the last 12 MPD officer involved shootings have been of people incapacitated by mental illness and/or chemically (far higher proportion than most large cities).
Dean Loumos has this to say:
The report on the fatal interaction of my former tenant, Michael Schumacher, was released today and I strongly support DA Ismael Osanne’s suggestions for more mental health services. I sent this proposal tonite to all of the below;
October 10, 2016
TO: Mayor Paul Soglin
Chief of Police Koval
City CouncilRE: Mental Health / Liaison Officers
My name is Dean Loumos and for the last 21 years I have been the Executive Director of Housing Initiatives, a non-profit community housing development organization. Housing Initiatives is unique in that we only house people who became homeless due to a mental illness.
I am writing you all today to request that you increase the number of mental health officers from the current 5 Mental Health Officers to 50 and the current 21 Mental Health Liaisons to 100. I want to be clear that I am only asking to train more of the existing officers up to this level.
I applaud and support District Attorney Ismael Osanne’s comments in his report released today to increase community based mental health services as I strongly believe that the benefits of having this many additional officers receive the training will result in less problematic interactions with people who are called in as, “acting strangely”.
In too many cases nationally, where police interact with people who are suffering from a mental health episode, the result too often results in a fatal outcome. I believe that there is another way and, that by increasing the mental health focused interventions, that the Madison Police Department can again become a leader in this important national discussion and eliminate fatal interactions with people who are struggling with mental illnesses.
Any which way, hopefully this new policy change and additional recommended changes will be taken seriously. Something has to change.
