New Austin police discipline policy

[Statalyzer]

http://www.kvue.com/story/news/local/2015/04/02/austin-police-change-discipline-policy/70857118/

At first glance this seemed to me to be a reasonable and intelligent change:

In the past, officers who broke the rules got unpaid suspensions. In many instances now, that won't happen as part of this change

Instead, officers who commit low-level violations would now face special training to correct their behavior

Officers are not going to go home bitter after being suspended for minor violations" .... Officials say more training for officers is aimed at correcting behavior, not just punishing them for it.

Ok, it makes a lot of sense that the way to handle minor violations is to correct the problem so that said minor violation doesn't happen again. But then there's this:

The change comes with a trade-off. In the past, when the chief suspended an officer, the media and thus the public learned about it from disciplinary memos that describe the officer's conduct. Now, when an officer is routed for a training program, the department won't release those documents, so the public won't know the specifics of their infraction.

That seemed worrisome at first, but since a major violation would still be released to the public, I didn't have a big problem with it or see it as an anti-transparency issue. Just one thing stuck out to me as being negative after I reviewed the entire article. It was this part:

That shift affects only minor offenses like accidental gun discharges

Wait, what? Firing a gun by mistake when you didn't meant to fire is minor? No, no, that is major. Anyone who knows much about gun safety knows guns don't just "go off accidentally". Now someone could argue that still, the best way to handle that situation is to send the officer in question to gun safety training. To that my response is: shouldn't they have already gone through a very large amount of that? If you're out there as a police officer with a badge and gun and license to use them at your best judgment, I don't think it's acceptable to say that such a person negligently discharging a weapon is "minor" (so long as it didn't hit anyone, I assume). Thoughts? Am I overreacting? Again I think the new policy is good, it's just the mention of what counts as "minor" that was troubling.

 

[Mr. Deez]

Wait, what? Firing a gun by mistake when you didn't meant to fire is minor? No, no, that is major. Anyone who knows much about gun safety knows guns don't just "go off accidentally". Now if someone wanted to argue that still, major or not, the best way to handle the situation is to send the officer in question to gun safety training.

First, any time an officer screws up, it should be made public. If these memoranda were the only way the public became aware of such screw-ups, then this change is an outrage.

Also, a gun discharge is a big screw-up. Keep in mind, that Larry Eugene Jackson was allegedly killed by an "accidental gun discharge." Should his case have been kept private?

 

[pasotex]

an accidental gun discharge is minor?

holy ****!

 

[Mr. Deez]

an accidental gun discharge is minor?

holy ****!

And in this context, who the hell decides whether or not it was "accidental?"

 

[Statalyzer]

who the hell decides whether or not it was "accidental?"

Had forgotten I posted this, but was reminded yesterday when talking with a friend who was in the military and actually did weapons training for awhile. His thoughts: "There is essentially no such thing as an accidental discharge of a weapon. Barring extremely unusual situations in which a dropped gun goes off, unintended discharges are never 'accidental discharges', they are always 'negligent discharges'."

Chief of Police can be reached here:
[email protected]

I'll definitely be sending something here in a second. Doubt I'll get a meaningful reply, but it's worth a try.

 

[snek]

I second that there is no such thing as an accidental discharge especially when it comes to somebody trained with said firearm or weapon. You may have something mechanical happen after trigger is pulled but if that weapon is clean and in working condition (something soldiers and law enforcement work diligently to achieve) but that's it.

 

[Statalyzer]

FWIW, a month and a half later I received no replay at all from him or any of his staff, not even a generic "Thanks for your concern and for giving your input" generic respond-to-citizen copy & paste response.

 

[Mr. Deez]

FWIW, a month and a half later I received no replay at all from him or any of his staff, not even a generic "Thanks for your concern and for giving your input" generic respond-to-citizen copy & paste response.

No surprise. I'd bring this up with Councilman Don Zimmerman. He's a little bit of a crazy man, but he's a hardcore libertarian. He won't like this.