Use of Force: Columbus Police Department November 2013 Voiceover: Beat Intro 00:00 This is the Beat—a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Barry Bratburd 00:08 Hello and welcome, my name is Barry Bratburd and on behalf of the COPS Office I’d like to introduce you to Chief Kimberly Jacobs from the Columbus (Ohio) Police Department who’s here today to discuss use of force issues. Chief, can you tell us about the challenges you’re facing today that involve use of force issues? Kimberly Jacobs 00:24 Certainly. Right now I believe that the scrutiny of police use of force is at an all-time high. There is so much video out there; everybody has a camera on their hip. So we’re seeing the use of force much more than we ever have had in the past. And, what we do know about the use of force is that it’s kind of ugly. It just does not look good when you see somebody punching or hitting or striking somebody with a weapon or anything else. And a number of police involved shootings have been caught on video; whether it’s our own video or somebody else’s video. So, when people see and they don’t understand how or why it’s being applied we know that it raises concerns. In addition to that, with police-involved shootings in particular, we know that it has an effect on the officer involved. I have a limited number of personnel, it’s expensive to hire people, I can’t afford to lose one either mentally or physically to the use of force, use of firearms. I want them to be, you know, productive members for their whole career, and if a use of force incident affects them in any negative way, then it affects our whole community. Barry 01:39 I understand that. Now, how would you assess your agency’s policies and practices involving use of force? Kimberly 01:45 We took a very hard look at our use of force policy back in 2001–2002 and changed it significantly. So I believe that we have a very good policy. We are routinely monitoring other agency’s policies, IACP policy, and looking at recommendations from PERF. So I believe we have a very good policy, but I think that there is always room for improvement and that’s what we’re actively working on. Barry 02:10 Ok, can you describe an example of how your department is working to address use of force issues? Kimberly 02:16 I’ve taken the Las Vegas collaborative review report and given it to one of my deputy chiefs and said, “Form a committee, look at this, see where we stand with regard to training, policy, procedures, culture, and various other aspects of that.” So we are definitely actively, proactively, looking at what we need to do. The vision statement that I wrote after becoming chief says that we are united in the spirit of teamwork and want to be a trustworthy, diverse, progressive, and community minded organization, so to me that especially includes looking at use of force and how it affects the community. Barry 02:56 Great. What initiatives are you implementing to engage the community as a partner in your public safety efforts and to enhance the department’s relationship with the citizens you serve? Kimberly 03:06 We want to know how our community feels about it as a whole, not just here and there an individual speaking up or a special interest group. I have agreed to participate in the National Research Platform Survey, which is going to do internal and external interviews and surveys of our community members and our own personnel to see where they feel things stand with regard to being, you know, trustworthy and how well we’re doing with regard to community policing. So I’ve engaged in that, that’s a two year program that we are participating in that is starting up right now. In addition to that I am regularly out in community meetings; I get invited for speaking engagements. To me the chief is the spokesperson for the division of police and needs to be familiar with our community members; so it’s business leaders, it’s rotary groups, you know, it’s block watch groups, it’s everybody on the spectrum being available to them, being visible and making some of our own statements. And using social media, a little bit, we’re going to grow that a little bit more though. Barry 04:17 Great. Well that’s all we have for you Chief Jacobs. Thank you so much for coming out and spending some time with us. Kimberly 04:21 Ok. Thank you. Voiceover: Beat Exit 04:24 The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice, COPS Office. The COPS Office helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing community policing publications, developing partnerships, and solving problems. Voiceover: Disclaimer 04:40 The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.