Phila. Police Say New Policies Meant Fewer Police-Involved Deaths in 2014
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia police officials attribute a drop in the number of incidents involving "use-of-force" fatalities this year to changes in policies and training made since 2013.
From January 1st of this year until now, there were 29 shootings involving officers, compared to 43 at this point last year. Four of the incidents this year resulted in a civilian fatality, compared to 11 at this point last year.
Police spokesman Lt. John Stanford attributes this to a decline in crime overall, as well as to increased training in crisis intervention.
"That gives our officers the training that they need to handle some of these intense situations, in which they're faced with some of the violent confrontations that they see," Stanford tells KYW Newsradio.
Meantime, Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey has reviewed a draft report by the US Department of Justice, which was called in last year by Ramsey to review the police department's use-of-force policies and procedures.
"They've gone over that with the commissioner and the executive staff," Stanford says, "so they'll take a look at coming back with final recommendations, hopefully by the end of the year. And we'll sit down and see what we can implement moving forward."
Stanford says it's not yet certain if the Department of Justice's final report will be made public. He does, though, point to another change in the past year: the police department now posts detailed accounts of all officer-involved shootings on the city's web site -- a move that Stanford said is aimed at providing transparency.