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On the night he died, Douglas Ostling dialed 911 — but he wasn’t in distress, according
to his parents. Bill and Joyce Ostling said they cautioned the police officers who showed
up at their Bainbridge Island, ashington, ho!e that their "#$year$old son, who li%ed in
an apart!ent abo%e the garage, was !entally ill. But when Douglas ca!e to theapart!ent door carrying the a& he used to cut 'indling for his wood$burning sto%e, the
situation escalated.
(he Ostlings and the police pro%ide different accounts of what happened ne&t. hat is
certain is that one of the officers shot Douglas. O%er the ne&t hour and 1) !inutes, he
bled to death on the floor of the apart!ent while the police surrounding the garage
treated hi! as a barricaded suspect.
*fter their son’s death in October +1, the Ostlings ad%ocated for better crisis training
for ashington state police officers. -ast !onth, De!ocratic o%. Jay Inslee signed
the Douglas /. Ostling *ct, which !andates that all officers in the state recei%e an initial
eight hours of crisis inter%ention training and participate in a two$hour re%iew course
each year. (he bill also includes a !echanis! to pay for +0 percent of the patrol officers
statewide to participate in a "$hour training progra!.
(here are a lot of things bro'en, and we helped fi& one,2 Bill Ostling said. It’s not a
total fi&, but at least it starts getting so!e attention, which is needed.2
3purred by police shootings in /issouri, 3outh 4arolina, Ohio and /aryland, law!a'ers
in !any states ha%e debated policing refor! !easures this legislati%e session. *!ong
the!5 !easures re6uiring local police to pro%ide !ore e&tensi%e training, e6uip officers
with body ca!eras and collect better data on the use of force. But !any of the
proposals ha%e stalled because of a lac' of !oney and resistance fro! local police
agencies.
Financial Realities
*bout half of the police agencies in the 7.3. e!ployed fewer than 1 officers in +1#,
according to the Bureau of Justice 3tatistics. 8or such s!all depart!ents, the cost of
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training— including paying officers to fill in for those recei%ing additional training in the
classroo! — is a !aor barrier.
In Ohio, where an attorney general’s ad%isory group recently reco!!ended increasing
continuing training re6uire!ents for officers fro! +" to " hours, 8raternal Order of
:olice :resident Jay /cDonald said police agencies support training !easures, but the
proposed re6uire!ents would cost an additional ;# !illion annually.
e ust want to !a'e sure that the reco!!endations of the tas' force and the
i!ple!entation of any reco!!endation doesn’t eopardi<e their safety and doesn’t
eopardi<e e!ployers’ ability to fund police operations,2 /cDonald said.
3i!ilar concerns played out in 4olorado, where =epublican state 3en. John 4oo'e, a
for!er county sheriff, oined with De!ocrats to pass initiati%es including a grant
progra! to help local agencies pay for body ca!eras, a !o%e to bring outside o%ersight
to in%estigations of police depart!ents and a re6uire!ent that officers recei%e additional
situational de$escalation, co!!unity policing and anti$bias training.
4oo'e called other bills, such as a failed atte!pt to ban the use of cho'ehold
techni6ues, pretty e&tre!e.2
I’! not saying that for e%ery !inor arrest a cho'ehold is used,2 4oo'e e&plained. But
when you’re in a 'noc'down, drag$out fight, you’%e got to do what you’%e got to do.2
4oo'e said !any of the ideas proposed by Den%er$area law!a'ers don’t translate well
in s!aller, rural urisdictions.
>ou ha%e different co!!unity needs and different agency si<e,2 4oo'e said. >ou can’t
write a law that co%ers e%erything. /andatory training — a lot of these s!all agencies
don’t ha%e the funds or the !oney to do the training they want to get done.2
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Jennifer 3haw, deputy director of the *4-7 in ashington state, where the Ostling bill
will ta'e effect in late July, said training is typically left to local urisdictions, but policies
go%erning police action should be standard across the state.
/oney could be one reason agencies resist training !andates, she said, but it is !ore
li'ely that localities want control o%er their police depart!ents.
(hey don’t see! to ha%e a proble! ta'ing !oney when it’s offered,2 3haw said. But
when it co!es to laying down certain re6uire!ents of how policy is written, how training
is underta'en, that’s where the local urisdictions get upset.2
3he said it’s i!portant to ha%e statewide policies, since officers fro! different agencies
often wor' together.
Before +10, only four states had body ca!era laws on the boo's. By /ay, #" states
were at least considering legislation related to the de%ices.
:ro!oted as a way to hold police accountable, the ca!eras ha%e raised 6uestions
about procedure, public records access and the e&pense of storing, re%iewing and
releasing footage.
In a +1" sur%ey by the :olice ?&ecuti%e =esearch 8oru!, nearly " percent of police
agencies without body ca!eras reported cost was the pri!ary barrier to using the
de%ices.
Tracking Use of Force
hile ca!eras and training are getting a lot of attention fro! law!a'ers, so!e policing
e&perts say the country’s ne&t wa%e of refor!s lies in accurately trac'ing how and whenofficers use lethal force.
(wo states, @orth 4arolina and Oregon, already re6uire data collection for incidents
in%ol%ing deadly force, according to the @ational 4onference of 3tate -egislatures
A@43-. -egislators in se%en states A4alifornia, 4olorado, 4onnecticut, /aryland,
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/assachusetts, @orth 4arolina and Cirginia ha%e introduced legislation this year to
address or e&pand data collection.
(here is no federal standard for collecting and co!paring data about police use of force,
though the 8BI does !aintain a database of officers who are assaulted or 'illed.
If we had a national database with data by city, we could then say these police
depart!ents are doing !uch better than these others,2 said 3a!uel al'er, a policing
e&pert and professor e!eritus at the 7ni%ersity of @ebras'a at O!aha. e could then
do research about co!!unities — policies, !anage!ent, personnel practices that
contribute to lower rates of shooting.2
In /aryland, law!a'ers were already considering a nu!ber of refor!s before public
outcry o%er the death of 8reddie ray, a Balti!ore !an who died in police custody,
reached a fe%er pitch.
Del. *lon<o ashington, a De!ocrat fro! :rince eorge’s 4ounty outside ashington,
D.4., spearheaded a new law that re6uires law enforce!ent agencies to report all
officer$in%ol%ed deaths to the /aryland o%ernor’s Office of 4ri!e 4ontrol and
:re%ention.
e need !ore transparency and accountability,2 ashington said. :eople died at the
hands of police officers, why shouldn’t we 'now that2
/aryland =epublican o%. -arry Eogan recently signed that !easure, along with a bill
creating a co!!ission to establish guidelines for police$worn ca!eras and a !easure
to establish beha%ioral health units at police agencies in the Balti!ore area.
In 4olorado, a si!ilar law will re6uire e%ery officer in%ol%ed shooting be reported to the
state Di%ision of 4ri!inal Justice. 4oo'e also sponsored that legislation.
Many Bills, Few Laws
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(he 7.3. Justice Depart!ent has opened nearly two do<en in%estigations of police
depart!ents during the past si& years after allegations of brutality or in the wa'e of
police shootings. It has reco!!ended refor!s in cities such as 3eattle, @ewar', @ew
Jersey, and 8erguson, /issouri, or entered into settle!ents to change policing policies,as it did last wee'in 4le%eland.
*lthough the police shooting of /ichael Brown in 8erguson last *ugust launched a
national dialogue on police tactics and spar'ed plenty of discussion in state capitols,
that hasn’t translated into !any new state laws—at least not yet.
In /issouri, for instance, law!a'ers proposed !ore than 0 refor!s during the
legislati%e session. But only one — a !easure to li!it the re%enue local urisdictions canraise through traffic tic'ets — beca!e law.
*dditionally, /issouri and 19 other states proposed nearly 0 bills regarding racial bias
training for officers, according to @43-. @one passed e&cept the one in 4olorado, the
group said.
3arah =ossi, director of ad%ocacy and policy for the /issouri *4-7, said legislati%e
leaders in /issouri lac'ed the appetite to pursue real change. I thin' the !osti!portant point was there were so !any bills that could ha%e addressed police refor!
and so !any of the! were ignored or gi%en a cursory glance and then ignored,2 =ossi
said.
hen the /issouri -egislature began its session in January, then$Eouse 3pea'er John
Diehl, a =epublican, told reporters the Eouse would not ha%e a 8erguson agenda,2 and
law!a'ers would not be eager ust to throw !oney at a proble!.2
In Ohio, /cDonald of the 8raternal Order of :olice said the issue co!es down to
!oney. (here are o%er 9 police agencies in the state of Ohio, so what !ight be
needed in 4le%eland or 4incinnati !ight not be needed Fin a rural area.G2
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But /i'e Bric'ner, senior policy director for the *4-7 of Ohio, said financing is only a
part of the resistance to change.
It’s 'ind of li'e swi!!ing in a sea of Jell$O,2 he said. It’s %ery hard to !a'e progress,
it’s %ery slow going, it’s %ery arduous. @one of these will be o%ernight solutions.2