Force report details police strengths.

Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard

Eugene police rarely use significant force when taking people into custody, according to data collected by the department during the past two years.

New rules require police to file a special use-of-force report whenever an officer, suspect or bystander is injured by an officer's force; when an officer strikes a person or uses a neck hold; and when an officer uses a weapon, such as pepper spray, a police baton or a firearm.

Police officers used such force in less than 1 percent of all arrests in 2003 and 2004, the data show. People experienced some physical injury in 55 percent of those incidents, and an officer was injured 43 percent of the time.

Department officials are pleased with the report's findings, which will be presented to the 12-member Eugene Police Commission at its meeting today.

In most cases, "we're not hurting people or getting hurt - that's really good news," Eugene police patrol Capt. Chuck Tilby said. "We tend to err on the side of lower-level force."

Police commissioner John Brown, part of a task force that recommended changes to the department's use of force policies in 2001, said the data affirms what he has observed during monthly ride-alongs with officers.

"It confirms that force isn't used as often as people might perceive, and it's used, I believe, with discretion in almost all cases," Brown said.

The police commission reviewed the department's three primary use-of-force policies - general use of force, pepper- spray use and how police apply control techniques and deploy less-lethal weapons - following criticism of police response to several violent protests in the late 1990s. The recommended changes emphasized verbal communication over physical force and encouraged officers to use the least harmful method to gain compliance from unruly or uncooperative people.

The commission also recommended the department track and report data about the use of physical force and use the information to tailor training and staffing.

The report is the first public release of the data.

Among the findings:

Police use of force resulted in one death during the two-year time period. On Jan. 13, 2003, members of the Metro SWAT team shot and killed Guy Einer McClure, a Creswell man who fired several gunshots at officers during an overnight standoff in a mobile home park. A shooting review board ruled that the six Eugene officers and three Lane County deputies involved had complied with existing policies, and criminal and internal investigations cleared them of any wrong- doing.

It was the only incident involving a firearm during the period in question, the report says. Simply pointing a firearm at someone is not considered police use of force and such incidents were not included in the data, Tilby said. Nor were cases involving bites from police dogs.

Officers most frequently use the takedown - tackling an aggressive person to the ground to control the person's movements - to deal with unruly people. Takedowns accounted for 55 percent of the reported force incidents and had the highest number of injuries to both civilians and officers.

The second most common tactic is pepper spray, used in 49 percent of the reported cases. Incidents involving pepper spray had the lowest rate of injuries to people. However, officers accidentally were doused with spray 25 percent of the time.

The third most common technique is hitting a person, either with hands or fists, elbows, the knee, foot or an impact weapon like a baton.

The data also shows that officers aren't the only ones getting physical.

Of the 194 reported force incidents in 2003 and 2004, the people involved used some form of physical resistance in all but three cases.

Most often, people punched or kicked officers, and 18 percent of people threatened officers with weapons such as knives, guns or sticks.

Alcohol seems to be a deciding factor in whether police encounters turn violent. People were under the influence of drugs or alcohol in nearly three-quarters of the reported incidents. And 15 percent suffered from some kind of emotional disturbance.

According to the data, people filed excessive force complaints in 8 percent of the incidents, and very few of those complaints were sustained after investigation.

Tilby said it's hard to compare Eugene's use of force rate to that of other agencies, because so few police departments compile such information. And those that do use different criteria and definitions in analyzing the data.

However, the city is one of about 100 local governments currently participating in an effort to establish reporting standards in cooperation with the International City/County Management Association.

COMING UP

The Eugene Police Commission meets today at 5 p.m. in the McNutt Room at Eugene City Hall, 777 Pearl St. Items on the agenda include Eugene police use of force, a presentation by the Portland Independent Police Review Division about external review and the commission's response to a recent audit of police operations. To see the agenda, visit www.ci.eugene.or.us/policecomm/index.htm.