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SOUNDS OF CRICKETS: An Analysis of The 28 LAPD Bodycam Videos From 2018 Depicting Officer-Involved Shootings and Other Uses-of-Force INTRODUCTION It has been nearly one year since the Los Angeles Police Department began routinely releasing footage from body-worn video cameras (herein, “bodycams”) depicting officers’ use-of-force (“UOF”) incidents, including officer-involved shootings (“OISs”) and In-Custody Deaths (ICDs). Bodycams are an olive branch to both the critics and the supporters of police departments. To the former, bodycams keep the police in line. To the latter, bodycams are a hedge against liability, since lawsuits almost always follow use-of-force incidents. LAPD reported 65 use-of-force incidents in 2013, 55 in 2014, 75 in 2015, 59 in 2016, 42 in 2017. They reported 39 in 2018, following the implementation of the bodycams. (Animal shootings and unintentional discharges with no injury are not counted here.) Even the Los Angeles Times has acknowledged the 30-year-low in uses of force within the Los Angeles Police Department. Even in the face of this milestone, the Police Commission voted in March 2018 to change the department’s policy regarding the release of use-of-force bodycam videos. The adopted policy prescribes that whenever any type of serious UOF is deployed, then the corresponding bodycam footage is to be released within 45 days. A simple majority vote of commissioners can extend this due date up to 28 days. Certain high-profile cases are also exempt from this deadline. LAPD were one of the first major American police departments to fully invest in and implement body-worn video cameras. The Department had released bodycam footage prior to the commission vote; however, the footage was released sporadically, and usually only after California Public Records Act requests or subpoenas by a court. The hours of footage released through the department’s YouTube page reveals a mixture of mostly excellent police work, as well as some very poor police work, and everything in between. Indeed, the now year-old library worth of footage illustrates the unpredictable situations that officers encounter on a daily basis. It also shows how, as humans, we are quite prone to error. Like every reasonable person, I believe that police officers should be held accountable for their errors, and if they are reckless or unlawful actions, they should be punished. What I object to, however, is the way that the local and national media only report on the bodycam videos that depict officer errors. This is why I decided to review each of the 28 critical incident videos released by LAPD this year and objectively report on what is depicted by police bodycam footage, closed-circuit surveillance footage, and third-party documentation. CLICK "READ MORE" BELOW _____ On June 19th, 2018, LAPD released a video depicting a standoff with 25-year-old Jose Chavez in the 4400 block of South Towne Avenue in the East Side of South Central, within LAPD’s Newton Division. Chavez was dissociated due to recent drug intake. Following his forced entry into a residence holding a brick, the first responding LAPD units arrived at the scene and observed Chavez prowling about properties in the area. After an extended standoff and several bean bag and taser deployments, more than a dozen officers advanced upon Chavez. After finally being restrained, Chavez’s breathing became labored, and he died an hour later at a hospital. The LA County Coroner lists his cause of death as “Cardiopulmonary Arrest [due to] Resisting Maneuvers by Law Enforcement [due to] Effects of Methamphetamine.” The manner of death: Homicide. No officers were charged. 2018 Los Angeles Police Department Critical Incidents OIS = Officer-Involved Shooting ICD = In-custody Death UOF = Use-of-force only, no shooting or death Fatal or non-fatal is specified. The Los Angeles Police Department, as of the late 2010s, responds to well over 5,500 incidents per day, and during summer months, that number is over 6,500. At just under 10,000 officers, this barely a tenable workload. Officer-involved uses-of-force are spaced apart anywhere from a week to over a month. In other words, there is an officer-involved incident once every 42,000 to 180,000 times that they are dispatched to a crime. Of the more than 16,500 homicides that have occurred in Los Angeles County from 2000 to this year (2019), law enforcement were responsible for 820 of them--about 4.9%. The first three bodycam releases for 2019 due for release any day now, since more than 45 days have passed since the footage was captured. [UPDATE: 30 March 2020: They released that first 2019 video last night, the 29th.] ___ CONCLUSION There are a number of things to be noted about these videos. First, they demonstrate, for the first time, the split-seconds that it takes for a situation with a suspect to change for the worst. Secondly, the collective makeup of the subjects in the bodycam videos released from May to December 2018 generally reflect crime demographics reported by the department throughout the 2010s. Of the suspects involved in all of the LAPD Critical Incidents in 2018: -20 suspects or subjects (or 48.79%) were Latino; -14 suspects (or 34.15%) were Black; - 7 suspects (17.07%) were White; - 0 suspects (0.00%) were Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native American; - 1 suspect (2.43%) was not identified, but was described by the hostage as a male Latino. Third, the demographics of the suspects or subjects involved in critical incidents, depending on the year, were generally proportional to the demographics of the City of Los Angeles, which as of the 2010 Census is 47.5% Latino, 29.4% White, 9.8% Black, and 10.7% Asian. (Data: 2005-09 American Community Survey). Finally, it appears that the better part of the 2018 uses-of-force were justified, in the sense that the suspects presented immediate dangers to civilians and/or officers. Of the 28 bodycam videos released, perhaps four or five of them depicted misjudgment by officers. And yet, all that can be heard is the sound of crickets. ___ I would encourage all who read this to exercise their right to access these bodycam videos in the coming years. Don't let them be cherry-picked and handed to you by politicos and electioneers.
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