DRAFT REPORT OF THE CITY OF SPOKANE USE ... - Samuel Walker

Mr. Earl F. Martin
RE: REPORT TO USE OF FORCE COMMISSION
December 3, 2012
Page 9
The supporting legal information relating to legal concepts and federal civil rights in all of
the documentation needs to be cleaned up with regard to the concepts that are included therein, and
recent case law needs to be incorporated. Material including cases such as Bryan v. McPherson;
Mattos v. Agarano; Young v. County of Los Angeles; and Glenn v. Washington County were
provided to the Academy Staff for their review and for incorporation in training materials.
Additionally, it was noted that all of the materials provided for my review referenced a case dealing
with deadly force that was overturned years ago (Vera Cruz v. City of Escondido) and a
recommendation was made for that case to be removed.
Of particular significance is the need to address the re-prioritization of the "Graham" factors
which are the basis for evaluating an officer's use of force in a Fourth Amendment context. Graham
v. Connor (misspelled throughout the training materials) is the preeminent use of force case decided
by the United States Supreme Court in 1989. The "Graham" factors have been modified with regard
to the priority of the factors used in determining whether an officer's use of force was objectively
reasonable. All of the material related to this block of training was also provided to the Academy
Staff for their use.
All of this is remedied by systematic attention to on-going policy and training updates. Use
of force instructors and internal legal counsel should be tasked with maintaining up to date materials
and information for SPD. During my meetings with the SPD instructors it was apparent that each
and every one of them wants to do the very best job possible and that each has the professional drive
and enthusiasm for instructing that is necessary to do the job. Given that they have not received
instructor re-certification or updates since 2007, it is no surprise that these issues exist.
The issue of maintaining up-to-date legal material is a good illustration of the need to
maintain the expertise of the department's subject matter experts. In particular SPD needs to
strategically plan to update and maintain current certifications for the defensive tactics instructors
and other force related instructional staff of the agency. Re-certification programs are in place to
insure that instructors have access to current materials and an understanding of current law. This is
not an uncommon challenge in the law enforcement community nationwide so I do not find that SPD
is any worse off in this regard than is typically found in other departments. Attendance of executive,
management, supervisory level personnel and subject matter experts at periodic training and updates
for law and policy concerns is costly in terms of time and course costs. However, the consequences
of not staying current are likely to be much more significant and pose long lasting risk management
concerns.
The "Fall 2011 In-Service" materials that were provided included the breakdown of the basic
and advanced skills training sessions and a description of the scenarios for the "Reality Based
Training" ("RBT") portion of the in-service training. This training program was then demonstrated