The Denver Post
Police urged to alter shooting policy
Saturday, March 06, 2004 -
Several Denver community activists called for changes in police policy Friday after a disciplinary board recommended a written reprimand for an officer who fatally shot a disabled teenager.
Activist Alvertis Simmons said officer James Turney, who killed 15-year-old Paul Childs in July, is "hiding behind" police policies. Simmons was especially critical of a policy that sanctions police use of deadly force if a person with a knife is within 21 feet of the officer. "We have got to change the policy that allowed him to keep his job," Simmons said at a press conference in the Five Points neighborhood. "Help us change the policy so no other officer can hide behind it." Turney shot the developmentally disabled teen after Childs' family called police when he began wielding a kitchen knife with an 8 1/2-inch blade. This past week, the police Discipline Review Board found that Turney used an improper level of force when he fired the shots that killed Childs but that he should not miss work for it. Sgt. Mike Mosco, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, said the 21-foot rule is a nationally recognized standard. "The research has been in depth - if a person is within 21 feet of an officer, there is not enough time to safely react" to an armed threat, Mosco said. Simmons, a representative of the Million Family March, was joined by other community activists Friday, including Leroy Lemos of Justice for Mena, John McBride and Michael Underwood of the All Peoples Party, and Gerald Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. The group also said the Denver Police Department should be put into a "federal receivership" in which the office of the Denver manager of safety would be run by the U.S. Justice Department. Federal receivership programs have been used in Detroit, Philadelphia and New Orleans, McBride said. The group plans to submit a proposal to the Justice Department in about 90 days. "It's incumbent for us to move on this process as quickly as we can," Lemos said. In December, Mayor John Hickenlooper unveiled the most sweeping police reform in a decade. The $2 million program boosts the department's training budget, provides funding to buy additional nonlethal weapons and calls for hiring a minority-recruitment officer, among other changes. |