Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The process for investigating the use of deadly force by Linn County’s five law enforcement agencies is being formalized, with the Sweet Home City Council approving the agreement during its regular meeting on March 11.
The countywide plan requires only small changes in Sweet Home Police Department policies, Chief Bob Burford said.
A new Oregon senate bill requires that each county within the state establish a “deadly physical force planning authority” and create a countywide plan and framework for consistent response to an officer’s use of deadly physical force, Burford said. The planning authority presented the plan at a public hearing at the Linn County Board of Commissioners’ board room on March 4.
The plan affects the aftermath of the use of deadly force. It does not address local department policies on the actual use of force.
Two-thirds of the governing bodies within the county operating police agencies must approve of the document, Burford said. The attorney general’s office has the final review of the plan.
Members of the planning authority include Sheriff Tim Mueller, District Attorney Jason Carlile, Oregon State Police Lt. Mark Cotter, Albany Police Chief Ed Boyd, Sweet Home Police Officer Jason Ogden and public member Andy Trower.
Law enforcement agencies operating in Linn County include the Sheriff’s Office; Sweet Home, Lebanon and Albany police departments; and Oregon State Police.
The plan is essentially what Sweet Home and other agencies already have in their general policies, Burford said. “There’s very little change to our policies.”
It “addresses everything from who will do the investigation to what happens to the police officer,” Burford said. The procedures are designed to protect the investigation and the officer, making sure he has access to mental health as well as time to calm down after using deadly force. The officer must receive two opportunities for mental health counseling at the agency’s expense, and he is required to attend at least one, Burford said.
It also memorializes a requirement that an outside agency investigate a deadly force incident, Burford said, or at least one member of the investigating team must be from an outside agency. This was already the general policy and practice of area agencies.
The policies in general haven’t changed much in the 22 years that Burford has been with SHPD, he said.
“Some of the good things about the act (the state senate bill) is that it recognizes that officers are ordinary human beings,” Burford said. “If they have to take a life, it is going to affect them profoundly. It’s something every cop prepares for and prays never happens.”
An officer may use deadly force to protect life, to prevent serious bodily injury or to apprehend a person who is posing a serious danger to an officer or member of the public, for example, a person who just shot two people and is headed out to the school yard, Burford said.
The threat always dictates the degree of force to be used, according to the policy. When the threat requires deadly physical force, an officer must have exhausted all reasonable means first with the safety of bystanders taken into consideration.
“We’ve been in several situations where the officer could have used deadly physical force, but they chose not to for one reason or another,” Burford said.
Since at least 1977, Sweet Home Police Department has not had any deadly physical force incidents, Communications Supervisor Penny Leland said.
“We still have policies and training for it,” Burford said. “We train for it regularly.”
Linn County Sheriff’s deputies have shot and killed two armed men who were threatening others, in Sweet Home and in Brownsville, in the last four years.
All council members were present.
In other business, the council:
– Approved changes to the time limits on parking on 13th Avenue. Parking from the alley north to Main Street is now two hours instead of 15 minutes. The eastern curb on the south end of 13th Avenue was already two hours, and the western curb along the south end of 13th Avenue remains 15 minutes.