About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 2020)
6A Thursday, November 12, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com LOCAL FORCE ■ Continued from 1A firearm is discharged and when incidents may be excessive and/or against the department’s policy. Both the Hall County Sher iff’s Office and Gainesville Police have committed to increased training related to de-escalation. Gaines ville Police Chief Jay Parrish has committed to tripling the number of hours focused on de-esca lation efforts, meaning at least 30 for the average Gainesville officer starting in 2021. The department said it will release the plan in December before the 2021 training year. However, there are always cases in which force is used. The Times recently obtained use-of- force reviews for 2017-2019 for the Hall County Sher iff’s Office and Gainesville Police. For the Sheriff’s Office, three of 126 actions were deemed out of policy after review. Gainesville Police released four complaints, three of which were deemed to be within the department’s policy, two of which were for people claiming that handcuffs were applied too tightly. One involved Officer Jona than Fowler, who the Geor gia Bureau of Investigation said was involved in the September 2019 shooting of Adam English outside the Gainesville hospital on Jesse Jewell Parkway. Hall County Sheriff’s Office The Sheriff’s Office use-of-force review board includes the Hall County Sheriff’s Office’s division commanders, a certified use-of-force instructor, a department instructor for the type of force used and an administrative captain or a designee. This means usually five or more people review the action. Use of non-deadly force is allowed when “neces sary to preserve the peace, prevent commission of offenses,... prevent suicide or self-inflicting injury,” in self-defense and when defending others, accord ing to the department’s policy. Use of deadly force requires the officer reason ably believing that the sus pect has a deadly weapon and when the officer believes the suspect “poses an immediate threat of physical violence to the officer or others.” But deciding what amount of force is neces sary is not an exact science. In May 2019, for exam ple, an inmate threw a towel in Officer Austin Ansbro’s face, according to an intradepartmental report. Ansbro removed the towel, approached the inmate and punched him in the face, according to the report. Two of the supervisors ruled it to be justified, while three supervisors felt it was out of policy. Ret. Capt. Brad Rounds said he felt it was justi fied because the towel thrown in the officer’s face “could have been used as a diversionary tactic for an assault.” “The inmate was also in a fighting stance, which (tells) us that he was ready for an assault,” Rounds said in the use-of-force review. “We do not need to wait to be attacked first before we act.” Lt. Dan Franklin said he felt it was a dispro portionate use of force and claimed it was out of policy. Despite the officer not being able to see, Frank lin said there were addi tional officers nearby who could have assisted without force. “The incident was embarrassing and demean ing, no doubt, and I have no problem with physically restraining the inmate from the moment the towel was thrown, but the strike was overreaction,” Frank lin said in the review. Ansbro was given six hours of training on de- escalation tactics for gaining compliance and defensive tactics. Sheriff Gerald Couch said after cases like that one, the department felt it needed to add the train ing division to the review because that division sees every member of the To file a complaint: ■ For Gainesville Police, complaints can be filed in person at 701 Queen City Parkway SW, via police@ gainesville.org or by phone at 770-534-5252 ■ For Hall County Sheriff’s Office, complaints can be filed by contacting internal affairs at 770-533-7694. agency. Their input is important to see whether there is a training issue that needs to be adjusted or a policy to tweak. Most new Sher iff’s Office employees start their careers in the jail. “Do we need to train the entire agency or just that one individual? It gives us a greater oversight and a greater checks-and-bal- ances in place that I feel more comfortable with other than just that panel,” Couch said. Another incident in April 2019 involved a chokehold, a practice the Sheriff’s Office said is not taught in training and is forbid den except in deadly force situations. Deputy Jackson Alex ander asked repeatedly for an inmate to return to his cell, a command the inmate refused, according to the report written from the officer’s perspective. The jailer and another offi cer grabbed the inmate’s arms to escort him back to the cell. The inmate resisted. Alexander reached over the inmate and put his hands together under his chin to get the inmate to stand up, according to the report. “Once (the inmate) stood up, he leaned back and pinned me in the cor ner from the wall with his cell and the shower wall,” according to the report. “I was afraid that he was going to headbutt me. I then put (the inmate) in a head and neck restraint, holding his head away from mine.” The jailer said he held the restraint for 2-3 sec onds, after which the inmate dropped to his knees and was put in handcuffs. This review did not include the supervisors’ individual opinions, but the action was deemed out of policy. The jailer was given remedial training on Hall County’s use-of-force policy. “We do not train that,” Couch said. “That’s not approved in any form or fashion unless deadly force has been used against them.” Then where is that instinct coming from? Couch said he doesn’t know. The third review hap pened in August 2019 when a Taser was used by an offi cer, Deputy Andrew Long, who was trying to serve a Superior Court bench warrant. The suspect tried to run away from the officers and was told to stop. The officer deployed the Taser for five seconds, which was determined to be out of policy. Couch said this violates the use-of-force policy because the person did not show any sort of aggres sion toward the officer or a third party. “Simply running away is not something that you would especially deploy a Taser on in this particular case, because you already know who she is,” Couch said. “...If you cannot phys ically catch her by chasing and running down, then, you know what, you can get her another day.” Long was required to go through use-of-force training online through the Georgia Public Safety Training Center. The Sheriff’s Office uses Guardian Tracking soft ware, where the supervi sors over the deputies enter any punitive action and commendation. If a deputy has two or three punitive instances in a 12-month period, he or she gets flagged. Couch and his chief dep uty check it almost daily, he said. Regarding the line between reprimand and termination, Couch said it must be shown that the officers “violate someone’s rights and break the law.” Gainesville Police According to investi gative files, citizen com plaints against officers are reviewed by a sergeant or lieutenant before forward ing their report to the top brass. The chief or deputy chief will often then send a letter to the complainant detailing the result of their investigation and if the offi cer’s actions were in/out of policy. In July 2018, a woman was arrested on disorderly conduct charges during a dispute at a birthday party in which the woman was unable to back into her driveway. The woman later claimed the handcuffs made her arms red. “It is not necessarily uncommon for redness to be present on a (person’s) skin after wearing handcuffs to include sitting with their hands behind their back in the rear of a patrol car,” according to a memo from a Gainesville Police captain. “(The officer) acted appro priately by checking the cuffs and even made adjust ments both times. There is no absolute certainty of the handcuffs being applied improperly.” That and another hand cuffing incident were ruled to be in policy. A woman complained of injuries to her boyfriend’s face, elbow and hand dur ing an arrest in November 2017. Body camera footage later revealed the injuries came when the man fell dur ing a chase, according to the Gainesville Police report. On Christmas Eve 2019, three months after the Eng lish shooting, Officer Fowler, who is now named in a civil lawsuit in regard to the Eng lish case, was responding to a domestic violence call at Linwood Apartments. He approached a 29-year-old man who wouldn’t provide his name, they argued, and Fowler handcuffed him and put him against the police car. Another officer arrived and was able to get the man’s name, revealing he was not the suspect. “There is no evidence to indicate that Officer Fowler profiled Mr. Butler during this call for service,” then Capt. Kevin Gaddis, now the deputy chief, wrote to Chief Jay Parrish. Gaddis also wrote, “Offi cer Fowler did allow his emotions to interfere with his judgement; however, I don’t feel that his actions were malicious, and it appears that he was trying to resolve the domestic call for service.” Gainesville Police said it was considered a violation of the employee code of con duct for job knowledge. He was originally given 15 minutes of training on crimi nal procedures in May. When being investigated, Fowler grimaced when watching the body camera footage. He said the information he had on the call was a Black male wearing a blue jacket with red writing on it leaving Linwood, adding later that he had authority to detain because the man matched the description. The dispatch call actually said, “male subject just left wearing a black hoodie with red words on it.” There was no mention of race on the dispatch radio. “I asked him with his 20/20 hindsight would there have been anything differ ent he would have done,” according to the investiga tive report. “He said that he would have stopped his car sooner and asked if Butler would come and talk with him. He still needed to talk with him, but he would ‘not have allowed myself to get aggravated with his resis tance to my questions.’” In the summary, the inves tigating officer said Fowler did not contact dispatch to clarify the description. Fowler is still with the department and has received more than 80 hours of training this year on de- escalation and use of force, police said. Discipline of officers takes “a large number of factors” into account. “Most importantly, we work with our human resources professionals at the city of Gainesville,” Gainesville Police said. “All cases are evaluated on their own merit. Every case is different and all aggravat ing and mitigating circum stances must be thoroughly taken into consideration.” Healthy, handpicked fresh from the grove! 3 unique varieties. 12 delicious oranges! Call 1-855-524-8843 to order item 442X or Visit HaleGroves.com/MN260 Order Item #442X, mention Code HNVH-N260 for your $15 savings. Only $19.99* (reg. $34.99), plus $5.99 shipping & handling. Satisfaction completely guaranteed. This gift ships in December at the peak of freshness. Order by Dec. 18,2020 for GUARANTEED Christmas delivery. AZ, CA, TX & LA order by Dec. 15, 2020. Call now and SAVE 43%! *Plus $5.99 handling per pack to the 48 contiguous states. Limited time offer, good while supplies last. Not valid with any other offer. 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