(Asst. Chief Jim Pugel and Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, at the scene of last Thursday’s murder-suicide)

Story and photos by Christopher Boffoli
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

When Seattle Police officers responded to the location of this past week’s deadly shootings, they arrived to what Assistant Chief Jim Pugel (above, left) would subsequently describe as “an uncertain and chaotic scene.” There had been multiple 911 calls with word of shots fired, potential gunshot victims who needed medical attention, and a shooter possibly on the loose, close to busy intersections filled with people.

Though the circumstances of the event were far more severe and quite different than what most officers experience on a routine patrol, what was similar was the method by which they all applied their training and experience, with ambiguous information, in a rapidly developing scenario with the lives of citizens and emergency personnel at stake.

(Officers Chris Meyers and Dallas Murry demonstrate the X-26 TASER)

Just a day before the quadruple murder-suicide in West Seattle, the Seattle Police Department invited media, including WSB, to a training facility in Tukwila for a primer in how officers are trained to deal with equivocal, potentially dangerous situations. Though the outreach was clearly designed to engage the media in the wake of the downtown shooting of Native American woodcarver John T. Williams, as well as a handful of recent, racially charged interactions, the behind-the-scenes look at current training methods is relevant to Thursday’s West Seattle shootings as well as the recent Thomas Qualls shooting in the Alki area.

Amidst the constant pop of gunshots from an adjacent firing range, a four-hour overview demonstrated some current training techniques, provided extensive details on the department’s use of TASERs, and allowed journalists to participate in a hands-on Shoot/Don’t Shoot simulator. The day’s sessions demonstrated the significant challenges officers can face in making split-second decisions, often in situations with incomplete and changing information.

Above all, the Seattle Police Department made it clear that its primary goal is always to diffuse potentially dangerous situations. “Whether it is something that comes up on a routine patrol, or what we saw last Thursday, essentially what we always do is de-escalation,” said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb of the Seattle Police Media Relations Office. And though dramatic events involving police and firearms garner a majority of media attention, the SPD says that what many may not consider is the success they have with many tens of thousands of incidents that patrol officers deal with routinely in the course of a year. According to Officer Dallas Murry, TASER Program Coordinator, 99.8% of the time, officers are able to talk a suspect into submission. “Law enforcement is more of an art than a science,” he said.

In addition to the extensive schooling officers receive at the police academy, including firearms training, high-speed vehicle maneuvering, criminal law and investigative tech-niques, they also train in softer skills like negotiation, cultural sensitivity and how to avoid racial profiling. Lieutenant Scott Bachler (above), explained the supplemental Verbal Judo training that the department has recently begun rolling out. This program, designed by Dr. George Thompson, provides techniques to help officers remain objective during verbal confrontations. It breaks down interactions into a series of steps which appeal to baseline human responses. So far 53 officers have received this new 8-hour supplemental-training session.

Sgt. David Drain then provided a look into the race and social-justice training that not just Seattle Police officers, but all City of Seattle employees, are receiving. He said they currently have completed training for 1,800 SPD employees and hope to be finished by November of this year. Drain said the training is more interactive and different than similar programs employed by the City in the mid-’90s after concerns that the previous curriculum was “too didactic.”

Using videotaped scenarios, he said the new program is designed to provide different perspectives with the goal of producing better-rounded officers, a reduced number of community complaints, and lower incidences of the use of force. Drain then played a segment from one of the training videos. The scenario was a late-night traffic stop, first presented from the point-of-view of the driver (a woman of color) and then that of the officer. The video was made to be deliberately ambiguous so officers could learn where misunderstandings can occur, causing situations to rapidly devolve. Before he wrapped up, Drain encouraged the group to check out the 1989 Academy Award winning short film The Lunch Date which presents another example of how initial assumptions of a situation may be dispelled by looking at the same situation from another angle.

From there the presentation moved on to tools available to an officer when a situation moves beyond words. In the wake of recent high-profile shooting incidents, mentioned above, the Seattle Police Department has said that they plan to expand the number of TASERs in use. These non-lethal, gun-shaped electronic devices use a nitrogen charge to shoot barbed metal probes at a suspect and, through thin wires, deliver an electric charge which incapacitates by overriding the body’s motor nervous system. TASERs are different from stun guns, in which a device is placed against the body to deliver a charge (though the TASERs in use by the SPD may be used that way as well). With projectile-launching TASERs, the charge can be delivered from as far away as 25 feet.

Officer Chris Meyers, TASER Senior Master Instructor, explained in detail how TASERs work. He said that though the electronic devices peak at 50,000 volts, it is not the high voltage that matters, but the amps, or the rate at which the charge flows. “You build up about 30,000 volts of static electricity just dragging your feet across the carpet,” he said, “The voltage in itself is not harmful.” To make the science behind the electricity easier to understand, Meyers used water as an analogy. “Raindrops fall on us from thousands of feet in the air without doing any harm. But if you were to stand under Snoqualmie Falls you would be harmed, even though the water is only falling a few hundred feet,” he said, “It is a matter of volume.”

Meyers explained that when a TASER is fired at a suspect, the two barbed metal probes penetrate clothing and skin, both of which are fairly insulating. “Once you get under the skin, the human body is essentially salt water, which is an excellent conductor.” The X-26 TASERs in use by the Seattle Police introduce only about 1200 volts to the body after the circuit is completed. As a safety precaution, the duration of each pulse of energy emitted by the device is designed to be shorter than the rate at which a person’s heart would be affected.

Conjuring yet another metric of power measurement, Meyers said that each of the TASER’s pulses emitted only 0.07 joules of electricity to the body, compared with a range of 150-400 joules that a medical cardiac defibrillator would use. Meyers provided a volume of scientific research, compiled by Mark W. Kroll, PhD. of the University of Minnesota, affirming the safety of these non-lethal devices. “Until someone invents a Star Trek style stun gun, this is the best option we have.”

Officer Dallas Murry, TASER Program Coordinator, said that, though the person being tased does feel pain, discomfort is not the objective. “What we are trying to do is to override the body’s motor nervous system,” he said. This forces a suspect into submission as they are no longer able to fight. Murry showed a video which compared the use of pepper spray and TASERs. With the spray, a motivated assailant was still able to attack officers, in contrast to the TASER in which most suspects are instantly subdued. “A TASER incapacitates immediately,” he said, “It also offers a quick recovery.”

But TASERs are far from foolproof. The training officers explained some of the challenges associated with the device. Both of the two probes must strike the suspect in order to close the circuit. Thick clothing can sometimes prevent probes from penetrating the skin. They must also be a minimum of 4 inches apart once they hit the suspect. “The farther apart they are the better,” said Murry, “as the current is spread out over a broader range of muscle groups.” A probe that strikes the stomach or an area of fat might not deliver the energy as effectively as muscle does. And the probes spread out from each other one foot for every seven feet of forward travel between the officer and the suspect. So despite the capability of the devices to shoot 25 feet, Meyers said that a range of 7-15 feet is optimal. Too far and one of the probes might miss a moving suspect. Thin TASER wires can also be broken or stepped on, risking potential shock to officers. TASERs also sometimes fail just by the fact that they are electronic devices.

Meyers explained that there are rare situations in which the use of TASERs can pose increased health risks for suspects. Police officers frequently encounter people who are under the influence of drugs or who are having a medical crisis, or both. Meyers presented information on a medical phenomenon known as excited delirium in which suspects over-extert themselves, building up high levels of acid in the blood and becoming hyperthermic. Such suspects can be incoherent and exhibit incredible bursts of strength and endurance. They may require more tases to be subdued, but may suffer cardiac arrest as a result.

Meyers related the story of recent cases in which the Seattle Fire Department successfully revived people who “coded” when they were tased. So additional training has been added for firefighters and paramedics. All SPD officers who are issued TASERs are required to receive 9 hours of initial training and 3 hours of re-training annually. And any use of a TASER while on duty automatically requires an officer to complete a use of force report.

Murry said the SPD first equipped officers with TASERs in 2001 and that in nine years they have been deployed 1659 times, for an average of about 15 incidents per month. He said there currently are 367 TASERs in use, though that number will soon climb to 422, which would comprise about 2/3 of patrol officers. Despite the challenges with their use, Murry said officers who deploy TASERs are successful 70% of the time.

Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer said that the demand for TASERs exceeds the department’s ability to provide them and that many officers view them not only as a “very good tool to have as a force option” but also as an effective deterrent and “de-escalation tool.” “Though the number of TASERs in use is growing, the incidence of their use is down, “ he added. “And what we don’t have statistics for is the number of incidents that were diffused by the mere theat of their use.”

After a practical demonstration of TASER use (on a cardboard target), Officer Meyers concluded the morning’s TASER session by emphasizing that “TASERs are not intended to be the first option when a lethal threat is presented to an officer.” And again he put into perspective how rarely they are used when one takes into context the number of altercations patrol officers have across the City of Seattle.

Following the TASER demonstration, Sgt. Tom Ovens, a Defensive Tactics and Firearms Instructor, gave a brief if fascinating overview of a regimen of training officers receive, supplemental to their police academy training, which aims to help them integrate a range of skill sets from different areas. Ovens showed a series of actual training videos in which officers are placed on location, in scripted scenarios, with uncertain circumstances. They learn to move in formation, ferreting out a suspect in say a Columbine-type situation, avoiding innocent bystanders. They confront uncooperative suspects who may have a firearm tucked into their waistband, or merely a cell phone. In these scenarios, officers are taught to use their own instincts and judgment, not necessarily being told what to do, but allowed to make choices and then talk through those decisions afterward with instructors.

Shortly after, journalists moved over to the Seattle Police Department’s computerized Shoot/Don’t Shoot simulator, where they were put in the same decision-making position as the officers depicted in the videos of the training exercises they had just seen. Housed in a large trailer, the simulator features a darkened theater, with a large screen at one end and a firing position at the opposite end where the participant stands. In an adjacent room an operator at a computer is able to dial up a variety of situations, including an aid call, and a routine traffic stop. The on-screen subjects vary in demeanor from vague and harmless to uncooperative and lethal.

A realistic-feeling police handgun (which did not fire real bullets but did eject cartridges and also jammed like a real gun could) registers its impact points on the screen, so instructors can analyze after each simulation where bullets would have struck. Some simulators up the ante by firing a harmless (but painful) rubber pellet at participants to simulate shots from a suspect’s gun. But in this simulator, the only chance of harm was to one’s pride as you were outgunned by suspects who had the advantage of the element of surprise. The experience certainly provided a feel for how quickly a situation can change, as well as how vulnerable police officers can be to making split second decisions that result in themselves or innocent bystanders being shot.

(Officer Thomsen James, in red, instructs Stranger reporter Cienna Madrid, right, as she prepares to begin the simulator)

The SPD officers emphasized that the training on display for the media that day was representative of the existing program and that a review and revision of training procedures, announced by Chief Diaz on September 15th, is still underway. Pending further reorganization, Diaz has announced that, in addition to the increase in the number of TASERs deployed, that a number of officers will soon receive 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). The CIT-conversant officers will be better able to deal with subjects who are mentally ill or who are otherwise exhibiting signs of crisis.

For anyone who wants to experience the police simulator for themselves, the SPD offers a Community Police Academy designed to educate the public on their operations. Applications are currently being taken for the next ten-week session, which is scheduled for March 2011.