(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Despite policies on the books for years that require officers across the United States to stop colleagues from using excessive force, there has been little or no effort to teach officers how to intervene, law enforcement officials and experts say.
Minneapolis adopted a policy in 2016 requiring officers to intervene when colleagues are using inappropriate force. Yet three other officers at the scene failed to stop 19-year police veteran Derek Chauvin when he put his knee on Floyd’s neck despite Floyd’s cries that he could not breathe.
But the culture at many departments may look down at officers who intervene and lead to retaliation against them, and that has been an obstacle to duty to intervene policies, said Jon Blum, a law enforcement consultant and former police officer.
“Having a policy in place is great, but to a degree it can be window dressing,” said Blum, who was North Carolina’s statewide police training director in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Policy does not necessarily change the culture of an organization or the culture of what officers are doing. I think it comes down to training.”
In 2008, Buffalo, New York police officer Cariol Horne was fired for interfering with another officer who she said was choking a handcuffed suspect. When she yelled at Officer Gregory Kwiatkowski and grabbed his arm during the 2006 incident, he responded by punching her in the face, she said.
An arbitration process determined she put the lives of the officers at the scene in danger, and she lost her appeals of her firing. Buffalo officials recently asked New York’s attorney general to review the case.
In New Orleans, calls for change came more than a decade ago in response to deadly incidents against unarmed civilians following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The police department remains under a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department that resolved allegations of unconstitutional conduct and ordered an overhaul.
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