D.C. police chief discusses use of force

WASHINGTON — D.C.’s police chief did not give specific details about Saturday’s police shooting of a woman with a knife, but at a community meeting on Monday night she did speak in general terms about the use of force by officers.

“I think our record compared to most major cities is very, very good in terms of our use of force,” Chief Cathy Lanier said at a meeting held with Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh at Forest Hills Senior Living Center in Northwest.

Lanier spoke about when, in general, officers can use force and how they train for such situations.

“Every individual situation has to be based on the perception — and this is case law as well — perception of threat from the officer at the time without the benefit of hindsight,” she said. “In terms of what we train officers to do, and uses of force, we can’t predict every scenario, and we can’t train you to respond to every scenario.”

Lanier says her department averages five or fewer police shootings per year, and officers take away almost 2,000 guns per year from armed suspects. In addition to a gun, every officer carries pepper spray and a nightstick.

Lanier said people who live in the area of Northeast where the most recent police shooting happened know the officers who patrol there by name.

And although community policing is important, problems can still arise.

“There are going to be times, regardless of how good the relationship is with the police officers and all the community policing efforts we have, that there are going to be bad things that happen.  Police officers are going to use force.”

Lanier assured that every use of force by the police department is “examined very thoroughly” not just by the police department, but by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as well.