Ashland Police Department fields questions about its use-of-force policy

Police Chief Tighe O'meara talks with Neswatch 12's Brian Morton about his department's policy on using force.

Death sparked protests and riots across the u-s andn use-of-force policies.

I spoke with police chief tighe o'meara about changes his department is making in this top story.

So what kind of training do your officers go through and what is your policy as it relates to use of force?

Um, our officers go through extensive training, not just in the physical tactics used, but in what level of force is appropriate, given the situation and our use of force policy is driven by national best practices.

Uh, just like medford's is and jackson county sheriff, and a lot of other agencies.

And it states a lot of things, but amongst them, it states that only the minimal force necessary to affect an arrest can be used.

And it also states that every officer has a duty to intervene.

If he or she sees another officer using excessive force.

So there are a lot of components to it, but it's a very robust and, uh, it's a good policy.

It's a national best practice policy.

Can you explain for those who have never been in a situation where.

They felt their own safety might be at risk.

How you make that delineation between how much is too much and what's appropriate when you're in the heat of the moment, trying to protect yourself.

Well, sometimes it's not very easy, but it comes with training and experience.

You hope that no force is necessary going into a situation.

You try everything you can to deescalate as long as it's safe to do.

So.

Uh, if it comes time to use force, then you use that amount of force that is reasonably.

Uh, needed to make the arrest.

So it can be very tricky.

I think ashland police officers are very good at it and get it right.

The vast majority of the time, there's been a lot of talk in the news about a choke hold.

How do you define what a show called is and where does it come down in the training that your officers have received a choke hold is anything that's going to restrict the air flow and the, uh, lateral vascular restraint.

Is a taught technique in some police departments, not in the ashland police department.

So choke holds by our policy are prohibited unless it's a use of force or a legal force situation.

If it's a lethal force situation, then officers are going to do whatever they have to do to keep themselves in the public safe.

But anything short of that, if you're a national and police officer, you should not be doing anything with the neck.

I know, we hear a lot of the phrase, defunding police now across the country and some of the larger departments, when you and others in police forces hear that term, what does that mean to you?

Well, what it means to me is that, uh, people are recognizing that we need to have crisis intervention teams on staff.

We need to have substance abuse people on staff, uh, and we can't continue to rely on our police officers to be.

Crisis intervention specialists and substance abuse specialists and homeless services specialist.

So i don't mind having that conversation where we talk about complementing the existing police department with these much needed services.

And i don't know, a police chief anywhere who will say that we don't need more mental health intervention.

We don't need more substance abuse intervention, but in my mind it has to be a complimentary program.

It can't be something that replaces the police department because while we need those.

Professionals to respond accordingly.

We also need armed police officers to respond to crimes and progress.

Bar fights, assaults, domestics, you know, a whole range of things.

And it's not fair to the community.

It's not fair to individuals or the community as a whole to say that we're just going to do away with the police department.

It's not realistic.

And it's a nonstarter of a conversation in my opinion.

Looking back in the concept of training, what do you think officers need more training in and how should that be addressed?

You know, uh, training in deescalation, verbal judo, um, interacting with, uh, marginalized members of the community and mental health issues, substance abuse issues.

We can never get enough training on those issues.

Uh, there aren't enough hours in the day and there aren't enough dollars in the bank account to give us.

Any level of training, approaching what we truly need to act in that capacity.

So any training in those categories, if we get it, i'll always say, it's not enough.

We need more.

And i doubt that we'll ever have the ability to truly say that we're adequate to the task of being a mental health professional, um, brings to the, to the table or that a, uh, absolute deescalation expert brings to the table.

So the more of that we can get.

The better off we'll be, but there's