157 deaths in California due to Police Use of Force

For the first time ever, the California State Attorney General’s Office has released a statewide tally on use-of-force incidents. The report is specifically for incidents that have resulted in serious injury or death in 2016.

All of the state’s 800 police departments supplied detailed data from 2016, including demographic information on the civilians and officers, the type of call that led to the violence and the officers’ justification for using force.

According to the State Attorney General’s office, last year there were 782 incidents involving use of force resulting in serious injury, death. 832 civilians were involved, of those, 19 percent were killed. Six officers were also killed.

In 2016, Monterey County had two officer-involved shootings. The first happened in Soledad back in October when authorities said Walter Ancheta got into a fight with an officer during a traffic stop. That officer fired his gun, hitting Ancheta, who was injured.

The second, Paulo Barcenas was shot after authorities said he started firing at deputies during an hours long standoff in Monterey.

There were four officer-involved shootings in Santa Cruz County with two people hurt, two others died.

“I can’t really say if I’m surprised that it’s a high number or a low number because there are no real other years to compare to, but what we say is that it doesn’t surprise us that the populations most affected are people of color: Hispanics, African American populations,” said Communications manager, Jesus Valenzuela.

The report found of the civilians involved, 42 percent were Hispanic, 30 percent were Caucasian, 19 percent were African American.

Nearly 36 percent of the civilians involved were between 21 and 30 years of age.

“The policies are our rules,” said Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Commander John Thornburg.

Commander Thornburg has been a use-of-force instructor for 15 years. He trained thousands of deputies and police officers on when they can and cannot use force.

“They go through multiple scenarios. One they might use force, another one, they might be able to de-escalate. The big part of de-escalation that people need to remember is that it takes both sides. Deputies and officers are not going out trying to use force on everybody they run into,” said Thornburg.

Thornburg said sworn staff go through training several times a year and learn to deal with ways to help people who could be suffering from a mental illness.

“In California, we strive to improve public trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they are sworn to protect by opening lines of communication,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “A necessary part of the discussion is knowing the facts and having the data to inform the creation of effective plans to advance sound criminal justice policies.”

Departments are now required to report any use of force that causes “serious injuries” under a proposal passed by lawmakers and implemented by former Attorney General Kamala Harris. Though some departments already tracked such data on their own, many did not.

Few other states collect such comprehensive data. Texas requires the attorney general to track statistics on officer-caused and officer-sustained injuries and death, Colorado requires every police shooting be reported and Connecticut tracks every incident of serious force, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.