Police use of force database - Maplewood with highest rate in NJ

jfburch said:
Whether or not a threat against officers was made is included in the database, for each incident.
And, yes, this is not the most recent data and I give the Maplewood Police department props for making changes ahead of this report (though, I think, largely in response to the 4th of July incidents).
Jackson_Fusion--your point is well taken, but I have witnessed several police/youth encounters around town that seemed to me at the time excessive and counterproductive.  And I am sure some of the social justice/racial equality groups have more to say on this.
Finally, on the octogenarian, if dementia or something like it was involved, it's worth noting that mentally ill people have a high rate of death when police are called, though families or neighbors may see no other choice.  But even when threats, and non-gun weapons are involved, shooting, let alone shooting to kill is seldom necessary.

I don't give the department any props.  The TC forced them to change after they were clearly not ready to change.  The Chief of Police was fired along with another officer and they were given hefty golden parachutes to leave town.  

Then the department inexplicably promotes the officer with the highest rate of force used in the entire department. 

eliz said:
I think there is a large subset of the Maplewood population who are not at all surprised to read this report. It validates their experiences. 
I hope there is a real push to find out how the one officer with a super excessive record got promoted.

 Does it?

Has anyone seen the details of the incidents where force was used and what that force was? 

I’d be very interested in seeing it. 

Jackson_Fusion said:

eliz said:
I think there is a large subset of the Maplewood population who are not at all surprised to read this report. It validates their experiences. 
I hope there is a real push to find out how the one officer with a super excessive record got promoted.

 Does it?


Has anyone seen the details of the incidents where force was used and what that force was? 


I’d be very interested in seeing it. 

 You may be able to find further information on the njadvancemedia website.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Jackson_Fusion said:

eliz said:
I think there is a large subset of the Maplewood population who are not at all surprised to read this report. It validates their experiences. 
I hope there is a real push to find out how the one officer with a super excessive record got promoted.

 Does it?


Has anyone seen the details of the incidents where force was used and what that force was? 


I’d be very interested in seeing it. 

 You may be able to find further information on the njadvancemedia website.

 That’s the thing. It doesn’t appear to be there so I’m wondering if someone has seen other information from which they’re drawing their conclusions, 

The vast majority of incidents listed in the database under discussion were described as compliance holds.  What comprises a compliance hold was not defined.  Elsewhere in the material, the Police Chief describes a compliance hold as any incident in which the subject was touched by a police officer.  What comprises a "touch" is not specified.  

The report is careful to say that terms used throughout the database are not standard.  Neither are the characteristics of incidents that lead to the filing of a report that might be considered police violence.  Spokespersons for some of the police departments listed in the top 25 state that not all incidents are included, with the total number of non-violent incidents under reported, therefore, resulting in a misleading percentage of incidents in which violence was used.

While the conclusions are disturbing, the reader has to be very careful in drawing specific conclusions from this data.

Joan, I added "compliance hold" parameters to the list of questions I submitted.

Quoted in full below is Village President Sheena Collum's response in Village Green to the Force Report: 

"First and most importantly, I want to recognize and thank NJ Advance Media for undertaking such an extensive public information project on policing and use of force. In South Orange, we were aware of this initiative well in advance of its public release as our Police Chief and Internal Affairs Lieutenant welcomed and met with an Investigative Data Reporter for over two hours to answer any questions he had and support this initiative that is inherently grounded in transparency and accountability – something we should all welcome, including law enforcement agencies.

With respect to your question about trends [Editor’s note: Village Green asked Collum to comment on local police use of force trends and any subsequent initiatives], there is one in South Orange that won’t be seen in the Use of Force Database. Since 2016, the concluding date of data collected, use of force in South Orange has decreased by roughly 50% and is down from its peak in 2012 by 80%. In 2017, we had 5 instances where an officer needed to use force and year to date in 2018, we have had 6 instances. As the database also shows, the primary use of force in South Orange is a “compliance hold” and is used primarily in response to “resisting arrest”.

I attribute this trend to the ongoing work that is happening in the police department under Chief Kroll. De-escalation training is important and earlier this year, Chief Kroll initiated an “eradicating racial profiling” training. On one hand, I’m pleased with the direction and emphasis on professional development and the standard to which our law enforcement officers are being held but on the other hand, it’s to be expected – here and in every police department across the state. Fair and equal policing is a moral imperative and not just a lofty goal."

That is good news. As per a question posted in this thread, can someone define compliance hold and the parameters for its use? Is it limited to the old time wrestling's "full nelson," or does it include striking a person, choke hold or whatever?

Formerlyjerseyjack said:
That is good news. As per a question posted in this thread, can someone define compliance hold and the parameters for its use? Is it limited to the old time wrestling's "full nelson," or does it include striking a person, choke hold or whatever?

 According to one of the NJ.com articles -

"A compliance hold is a painful maneuver using pressure points to gain control over a suspect.

"The most common moves are arm bars and wrist locks, which are used to walk a person out of an area or toward safety to make an arrest. From 2012 through 2016, officers reported using compliance holds 56,989 times, or about 81 percent of the time when they used force, data shows. 

"If necessary, an officer can transition from a compliance hold into a takedown. A chokehold is not a compliance hold and is considered deadly force by police guidelines."

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2018/11/every_way_a_police_officer_is_legally_allowed_to_harm_another_person_from_a_to_z.html

It's not a "takedown" or a "chokehold", which are separate descriptions on that page.  There's a separate description for "hands and fists", so apparently it's not striking a person, either.

cramer said:
Quoted in full below is Village President Sheena Collum's response in Village Green to the Force Report: 
"First and most importantly, I want to recognize and thank NJ Advance Media for undertaking such an extensive public information project on policing and use of force. In South Orange, we were aware of this initiative well in advance of its public release as our Police Chief and Internal Affairs Lieutenant welcomed and met with an Investigative Data Reporter for over two hours to answer any questions he had and support this initiative that is inherently grounded in transparency and accountability – something we should all welcome, including law enforcement agencies.
With respect to your question about trends [Editor’s note: Village Green asked Collum to comment on local police use of force trends and any subsequent initiatives], there is one in South Orange that won’t be seen in the Use of Force Database. Since 2016, the concluding date of data collected, use of force in South Orange has decreased by roughly 50% and is down from its peak in 2012 by 80%. In 2017, we had 5 instances where an officer needed to use force and year to date in 2018, we have had 6 instances. As the database also shows, the primary use of force in South Orange is a “compliance hold” and is used primarily in response to “resisting arrest”.
I attribute this trend to the ongoing work that is happening in the police department under Chief Kroll. De-escalation training is important and earlier this year, Chief Kroll initiated an “eradicating racial profiling” training. On one hand, I’m pleased with the direction and emphasis on professional development and the standard to which our law enforcement officers are being held but on the other hand, it’s to be expected – here and in every police department across the state. Fair and equal policing is a moral imperative and not just a lofty goal."

The key difference between Sheena's update and the one sent by Maplewood's TC is that Sheena included data since 2016.  Maplewood TC did not.  I'm not sure what that tells us but it gives the appearance that Sheena is being more transparent than the Maplewood TC.

Jackson_Fusion said:

dave said:
The two officers who used force against an 80 year old should probably be let go asap.   That or given gym memberships.

What should police do with a non-compliant octogenarian? Do we know what the circumstances that led to the force was and what force was used? 


Just want to get a sense before we fire the two officers. 

Exactly. Do any of you know what happened? What if she had a weapon? What if she was trying to hurt herself? What if she had a medical issue and needed to be restrained for her own safety? 

I don't know about the incident with the 80 year old, but I do know that a local area police officer tackled a woman who was standing on the railroad tracks in front of an oncoming train trying to commit suicide.  He did this to save her life.  That incident resulted in a "use of force" report, which is included in NJ.com's data.  Obviously officers who abuse use of force should be investigated, but a set of statistics without background data on those incidents is far from the whole story.

Did the Maplewood TC ever schedule that community meeting?

So proud.

https://www.nj.com/expo/news/erry-2018/12/69f209781a9479/black-people-in-nj-say-theyre.html

Lydia Couch feels like an enemy in Millville, not someone police are sworn to protect.

Altaif Hassan was raised learning how to avoid police confrontations, yet still ended up with an officer's assault rifle trained on his back in October at Rowan University.

And Aprille Smith will not call the Maplewood police, even if she's in trouble.

All three of them are black, and all three see police as an obstacle — or worse, a danger — in their lives. It's all they know.

"I don't call the police for anything now," said Smith, 42, said. "I can't. Because I know it's just going to end up being more trouble for me."

They're not alone.