Chicago police get Tasers, training to avoid fatal shootings

Protesters also have called for Emanuel to resign.

CHICAGO – Embattled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a major overhaul of the U.S. city’s police force on Wednesday in the wake of fatal shootings which sparked mass protests.

“The goal is to change the way officers think when they approach a critical incident by establishing time and distance to allow for more prudent thinking and physical space to promote a safer environment”, he said.

The Chicago Police Department, with some 12,000 officers, now has 700 Tasers, which fire dart-like electrodes that incapacitate but are generally non-lethal.

Police officers trying to apprehend Laquan McDonald, 17, as he wandered the street with a knife in his hand in October 2014 had asked for a unit to respond with a Taser but there was not one in the area. “They are part of the toolbox; they are not the toolbox”, he said. “Our job is to reduce the chances of mistakes”. And he said “force can be the last option, not the first choice”. “And we as a city must train for that difference”, Emanuel said, referencing what he said was a conversation with a police sergeant. Among those changes are the presence of a stun gun in every police vehicle, and proper training for all officers, who will be mandated to use the stun gun before turning to their firearms.

Under the new plan, every officer that responds to calls for service will be equipped with a Taser and properly trained to use it by June 1, 2016, the mayor’s office said in a statement.

Van Dyke has been charged with six counts of murder.

The city released the emails a day after Emanuel said police must be better trained.

Activists were skeptical Wednesday that the changes would reverse decades of problems and mistrust between Chicago residents and police.

Public outcry has been furious since a dashcam video was released last month showing Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times.

Pearson’s organization believes the only way to bring true change is to have a civilian police accountability council that isn’t appointed by the mayor.

Escalante on Wednesday declined to elaborate on the scant details of what happened that morning, though Emanuel acknowledged that public trust in Chicago police is “frayed to the point that it’s broken”. They say Jones was accidentally hit. “The people in charge are continuing to give (some officers) a pass”.

By October, Henry noted organizing by community groups around the McDonald case and the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd by another Chicago officer.

LeGrier and Jones were shot and killed by police early Saturday after officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance. He was on holiday with his family in Cuba over Christmas and meant to return to his hometown this weekend. IPRA told Foutris that investigators needed to gather more evidence that would help “determine the trajectory of the fired bullets, which in turn would have helped to determine where the police officer was when he was shooting”, Foutris said.

There were also 23 cases of possible police misconduct “pending Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office review”, 20 of them about “officer involved shootings”. Advocates say that number should be 25 to 35 per cent.

In saying the number of Tasers will be doubled, Emanuel mentioned the McDonald shooting.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose Rainbow PUSH coalition organized the event, called the move to give officers Tasers “a little late”.