Oklahoma leads the nation in the number of police killings per capita so far this year, according to an analysis by The Guardian.
Oklahoma City police have been a part of seven fatal officer-involved shootings, which is more than any other department in the state in 2015. Officers from the police department in Tulsa -- the state’s second largest city -- haven’t shot and killed anyone in 2015, despite a higher violent crime rate.
But Oklahoma City Police Captain PacoBalderrama isn’t surprised his agency’s numbers are higher than others in the state.
“We're the largest law enforcement agency. We patrol an area with almost a million people. We have approximately 1100 officers,” Balderrama says.
“There's more people in Oklahoma City, more situations for an incident to occur where an officer may have to use his gun.”
'Not An Epidemic'
The numbers are rising within Balderrama’s department. Oklahoma City police have fatally shot more civilians since 2013 than they did in the years 2005 through 2012 combined. Even so, Balderrama says it’s important to keep things in perspective.
“If you consider how many people are shot by police on an annual basis and you compare that to how many people are killed by drunk driving accidents, that's not an epidemic. In most cases, the officer is just acting and responding to the threat level. That's it,” Balderrama says.
Responding to the threat level. Of the seven deadly shootings so far this year, police reports show all the suspects were armed, either with a knife or a gun or, in one case, a vehicle. Balderrama says his officers are confiscating more illegal guns now than ever before, so situations can escalate quickly.
“These officers are under so much stress,” says Sara Bana. Bana is a co-founder of Ending Violence Everywhere, a local organization working to build police and community trust.
“We expect law enforcement to deal with so many different things on a daily basis. We expect them to deal with domestic violence cases, with mentally ill individuals, right? Often times these officers don't have the training they need, they're under a lot of stress coming into work,” she says.
Bana doesn’t blame individual officers involved in the shootings. Instead, she points to a militarized environment within the cop community.
“It is the culture of that law enforcement agency that promotes this kind of behavior and treatment of private citizens on a daily basis across this nation.”
Data Deficiency
Yale Law School’s Megan Quattlebaum says there’s no cohesive database with nationwide numbers on law enforcement activity.
“We have a real lack of data on police shootings and a lack of data on police use of force generally,” Quattlebaum says.
She works for Yale’s Justice Collaboratory and says even if there were definitive numbers, each shooting is unique, and it’s hard to draw clear-cut conclusions.
“Some police shootings are deeply, deeply troubling on a policy and training level in a way that other shootings aren't. And that doesn't make the others any less tragic, it just means that some have real implications for officer training and department policy,” she says.
Cops are under a lot of scrutiny across the country.
The Atlantic reports 14 cops have been charged with murder, manslaughter or homicide while on duty this year nationwide. But in Balderrama’s agency, he says things are different.
“I can't remember the last time we've had an officer-involved shooting that was ruled unjustified,” Balderrama says.
He says officers may have administrative discipline following a shooting, but the Oklahoma County District Attorney has historically ruled in favor of the cops. Granted, many prosecutors across the country are trigger-shy when it comes to charging officers.
Balderrama argues the rise in shootings points to an increase in hostility toward cops… an increase that isn’t always warranted.
“A lot of people feel that, because they see what they see in Ferguson, New York City, South Carolina, wherever, that they're almost justified in willfully disobeying the orders of a police officer who's doing his job. That's not a good idea.”
It’s simple, he says. If people would follow cops’ orders, chances are, use of force incidents would drop dramatically.
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