ORLANDO, Fla. — Police officers go through extensive training on when to use deadly force at a time when such police methods are under the microscope across the country.
Channel 9’s Karla Ray got a chance to suit up with Orlando police for such a training exercise.
“We’re putting them through decision-based training for shoot, don’t shoot scenarios because using deadly force is very serious and we want them to have the best training available,” said Orlando Police Chief John Mina.
The bullets are fake, but the scrutiny over real cases of alleged excessive force is at an all-time high, from Ferguson to Baltimore.
“I think now you’re seeing throughout the country excessive force is not more prominent, but you’re seeing more, because there’s a lot more video out there,” said Mina.
OPD announced this week it will equip its entire force with body cameras.
“We want the whole incident from start to finish,” Mina said.
Orlando police perform the training four times as often as the state requires, and after 9 Investigates exposed excessive force complaints against OPD, the chief said he’s increasing that training.
“Because of everything that’s gone on and the few incidents we’ve had here, we’re really going to focus this year on several things with officer training,” Mina said.
Officer William Escobar was fired in February and is facing criminal charges after 9 Investigates exposed video of Escobar kicking and punching a man in handcuffs.
Officer Peter Delio is off the streets after video of him showed him kneeing a handcuffed suspect with such force, the man had to have his spleen removed.
“We’re putting our officers through more training than we usually do about dealing with handcuffed prisoners. We want to de-escalate and assess, if necessary,” Mina said.
Use of force cases within OPD are down by 10 percent over the last two years.
“We’ve terminated two people in the past three months because of incidents related to excessive force. It’s never been OK,” Mina said.
Mina said the FBI will also be coming to give a refresher course about ethics and civil rights to his officers this year.
WFTV
