03-16-05 Health & Public Safety - Laserfiche WebLink

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Health and Public Safety Committee 2005 South Bend Common Council The March 16, 2005 meeting of the Health and Public Safety Committee was held at the South Bend Police Department located at 701 W. Sample Street and began at 3:30 p.m. Persons in attendance included: Council Members Pvzzello, Varner, Rouse,Kirsits, and White; Police Chief Thomas Fautz, Lt. Keith Schweizer, Lt. Scott Ruszkowski, Lt. Scott Hanley, Sgt. Mattie Taylor, Sgt. J.D. Kreczmer, Community Relations Division Chief Gary Horvath, Captain Wanda Shock, Assistant City Attorney Thomas Bodnar,two (2)members of the Board of Safety, Nancy Sulock of the South Bend Tribune, and Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand, Council Attorney. Police Chief Thomas Fautz welcomed everyone to the "South Bend Police Media Academy Use of Force Seminar" and provided an agenda (copy attached). He noted that there were p several other handouts which included information on the upcoming Citizen's Police Academy(4 pages attached), information on the upcoming Senior Citizen's Police Academy (3 pages attached), and information on the upcoming Youth/Police Academy(2 pages attached). Lt. Keith Schweizer then presented a power point presentation on Use of Force and provided information on tasers. He noted that Captain Wanda Shock is in charge of Training and Crime Prevention. Lt. Schweizer has been on the police department for 18 years. He stated that complaints have averaged 3.6 times per 10,000 calls for service with regard to use of force. 46% of those involved calls where drugs and/or alcohol were involved. He then reviewed the federal guidelines for use of force. He focused on objective reasonable force. Indiana Code 35-41-3-3 sets forth the criteria when deadly force is justified. Lt. Schweizer reviewed the force continuum, suspects actions, use of force theories, PPCT Resistance Control Continuum, physiological changes caused by stress, SNS changes due to stress. He suggested reading On Killing by Grossman noting that there is less respect for life and less respect for law enforcement today then in the past. Council Member White inquired about the statistics for use of force locally. Division Chief Gary Horvath noted that they have approximately 90,000 calls for service. Lt. Schweizer then passed around the room a taser. He stressed that tasers save lives every day. He then showed a series of video clips where law enforcement used tasers. He noted that the department has used bean bags but they can be deadly since they are shot from a 12-gauge shotgun. The Phoenix Police Department has 1,500 taser devices in use. The Cincinnati Police Department has had positive results from using tasers. Seattle and Miami Police Departments have used tasers for twelve(12)months and they have had no fatal shots fired in either city since they implemented the use of tasers. Lt. Schweizer stated that there is a great impact at the patrol level for the use of tasers. Tasers are seen as a first responder tool. The European Code is higher than the 26 watts authorized in the United States. 99%of the tasers are used for less than one (1)second which incapacitates an individual. March 16,2005 Health and Public Safety Committee of the 2005 South Bend Common Council -page 1-