By: Katie Mulvaney, providencejournal
By: Katie Mulvaney, Journal Staff WriterPROVIDENCE, R.I. — Chaos marked the events leading up to last week’s deadly officer-involved shooting on a highway ramp in Providence.
A report of a stolen state police cruiser led to a high-speed pursuit and, ultimately, police firing fatal shots into a white pickup truck driven by a man who authorities say was not the man who stole the cruiser.
The Providence Journal reached out to law-enforcement experts, a criminal defense lawyer and the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union for their thoughts on how the major events of the day played out.
THE CRUISER THEFT
Was state Trooper Michael Doherty in error when he left stolen-car suspect Donald Morgan alone in a cruiser with the key in the car?
Eric Bronson, dean of the Roger Williams University School of Justice Studies, said “it’s pretty common” for officers to exit their vehicles and leave them running.“It’s something that does happen as long as the suspect can’t get into the front seat of the car,” he said. In Morgan’s case, there was no barrier to prevent him from accessing the front seat.
Officers transporting suspects “sometimes” exit their vehicles leaving a suspect alone inside when they encounter a serious accident or incident, he said. Some police vehicles, however, are equipped with devices that prevent them from being put into drive without a second key being physically inside the vehicle, he said. Usually, the officer carries the second key on his or her person.
State police policy released Tuesday specifies that officers transporting suspects “shall not respond to the need for law enforcement services unless the risk to other citizens is both clear and serious and the risk to the prisoner(s) is minimal. If a request for assistance from another law enforcement agency is received, the transporting member(s) will utilize discretion before responding. Members who are of the opinion that the prisoner does not pose a significant security hazard may stop to offer assistance to stranded motorists and at the scene of motor vehicle accidents.”
The transporting officer must keep the prisoner within eyesight, according to policy.
Lt. Col. Joseph Philbin said Tuesday that Doherty left Morgan alone in the cruiser with keys in the ignition to respond to a crash in the center of Route 146 south, though the emergency lights can be activated without keys. He did not know how long Doherty lost sight of Morgan before seeing him drive away with lights activated.
Asked why the cruiser lacked a safety cage, Philbin said, “Honestly, we’ve never had them. We haven’t had an issue.”
The 2016 state police policy calls for safety barriers to be installed in all court officers’ vehicles.
Since the cruiser theft, Assumpico has ordered partitions be installed between the front and back seats of all marked Rhode Island State Police cruisers as soon as possible.
THE HIGH-SPEED CHASE
Was the pursuit of Joseph Santos, who was fleeing in a white F250 pickup truck, appropriate?
In Bronson’s view, yes. Santos’ truck fled Cranston police erratically and was thought to be linked to the cruiser theft, he said.
The Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union this week faulted police for initiating the very pursuit authorities then used to justify the use of force.
“While most of the focus has been on the use of deadly force by State and Providence police after Santos’s car was pinned in by them, attention also needs to be paid to the circumstances that led to this: a dangerous high-speed chase, which is also a hazardous use of force,” the ACLU wrote in a review of the incidents released Monday.
State police policy allows pursuits 15 mph over the posted speed limit for the “attempted apprehension of persons wanted for the commission of a Crime of Violence …” Such crimes include murder, kidnapping, and burglary as well as “assault with a dangerous weapon (not to include suspect car v. police car that may occur during a pursuit)” and escape from custody after being charged or convicted of such a violent crime.
The policy specifies “pursuits for all other non-violent felonies, other misdemeanor offense, traffic, or civil infractions are prohibited.”
It continues: “A reasonable assessment has been made regarding the potential advantage to law enforcement of apprehending the fleeing operator versus the potential danger to the member, other users of the highway, innocent bystanders, and the occupants(s) of the fleeing vehicle.”
Philbin declined to respond to questions about the chase because it remains under investigation.
THE DECISION TO OPEN FIRE
“Based on the way he was driving he was putting lives at risk,” Roger Williams’ Bronson said of video images of the white truck ramming into other vehicles. “At that point, it’s a deadly weapon.”
Asked if officers could have responded differently, Bronson said, “They are taught that if you draw your weapon and fire, you shoot to kill.”
He called it a “tribute” to officers that passersby on the busy highway weren’t injured or killed. “With how busy it was, it could have been a lot worse.”
The officers involved in the shooting are on sound constitutional footing given U.S. Supreme Court precedent, according to James Desmarais, associate professor of criminal justice at Johnson & Wales University.
A 2014 high court ruling sets forth that officers can terminate a chase that endangers the public using deadly force even when the pursuit was sparked by a nonviolent felony, he said. In that case, a driver took flight along with a female passenger after being pulled over for a broken headlight and failing to produce his license.
Officers cornered the driver, who then began ramming his car into a police cruiser. Officers ultimately fired 12 shots at the car, causing it to lose control. Both the driver and passenger were killed. The court determined if a high-speed flight poses a danger to the public, officers can use deadly force to stop the threat as long as they are acting reasonably, Desmarais said.
“To almost stop is not stopped from the video we see,” he said of Santos. “He’s trying to continue the flight.”
“They need not stop till the threat is over,” Desmarais, a retired Providence police detective captain, said of the officers’ use of deadly force.
“It isn’t even about what’s right or wrong,” he said. “It’s what is reasonable. Is he endangering other people?”
Roger Williams University School of Law Professor Andrew Horwitz took a contrary view this week.
“Neither [Morgan’s] underlying crime itself nor the crime of stealing a trooper’s car is a violent offense that would justify the use of lethal force,” Horwitz said of the pursuit of Santos. “When the police pursue a person for a nonviolent crime, the law would normally prefer that the suspect escape than the police use lethal force.”
“Does that make him a dangerous felon who needs to be killed to keep the public safe? That strikes me as a stretch,” Horwitz said.
The ACLU raised similar concerns.
“The danger to the motorists was much less when Santos was pinned in and trying to get out than when he was speeding and swerving on the highway well above the speed limit in racing away from the police,” Steven Brown, executive director of the state affiliate wrote in an email.
State police policy specifies that officers may use lethal force when “the facts and circumstances … would lead a normally prudent law enforcement officer to believe that an imminent threat of death or bodily harm exist” and “would cause a reasonable law enforcement officer to act to stop the threat.”
“Objectively reasonable force is not judged in hindsight, and will take into account, when appropriate, the fact that officers must make rapid decisions regarding the amount of force to use in a tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving situations.”
The officers involved in last week’s shooting fired 43 shots in a matter of seconds.
Source: http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20171114/experts-weigh-in-on-theft-chase-shooting