CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney laid out possible changes to his department policies nearly one year after the officer-involved shooting death of Keith Scott.
Putney unveiled new recommendations Friday afternoon from the Citizens Review Board and spoke about how the department can begin to implement those changes.
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The chief said the board wants CMPD to review:
- How they train officers to handle vehicle takedowns, which means getting someone safely out of a car during a confrontation, with no one getting hurt.
- How they use de-escalation tactics to ease the tension in a confrontation and get someone to follow their instructions peacefully.
- Look at whether someone pointing a gun can in fact react more quickly than a person who has gun pointed toward them.
The chief said he believes officers involved in Keith Scott’s shooting acted legally, and according to their own department policies, but he also said they embrace all of the recommendations from the board and will see how officers can apply them in training.
Putney emphasized that when someone has a gun and officers perceive a threat, it’s impossible to begin de-escalating the situation.
“Make no mistake, in an armed encounter we have very limited options,” Putney said. “We can talk crisis intervention training, we can talk de-escalation, we can talk anything that you might think of, but until it’s no longer an armed encounter, where our lives and the lives of other people are in jeopardy, there is no opportunity for de-escalation.”
Putney did not give a timetable for the reviews, but said the department is committed to working on them.
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Robert Dawkins, who has been pushing for more police accountability and transparency, said the fact that the chief is responding to recommendations by the Citizen’s Review Board is a big step.
“Do I think everything that was said there actually is something that’s going to happen, is going to be measurable? No. But the fact that we’re able to at least hold our board accountable... on what they’re recommending, is big,” Dawkins said.
An attorney for the Scott family said he applauds the police department for responding to the Citizens Review Board, but he said there are other recommendations that were not addressed when it comes to de-escalation.
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