South dakota law enforcement officers standards and training commission

The Denver Post has compiled a list of officer-involved shootings that have happened since Jan. 1. An officer-involved shooting is one in which either police officers or suspects fire shots and someone is injured or killed. March March 19: Denver police shot two men after a chase while they were searching for an inmate charged with attempted murder who had escaped custody earlier in the day. Police were searching for Mauricio Venzor-Gonzalez , 23, who escaped that morning from Denver Sheriff’s Department deputies at Denver Health medical center. Steven Nguyen died of his injuries. The second man is expected to survive. His name has not been released. As of March 21, Venzor-Gonzalez has not been apprehended. March 12: Colorado Springs police fatally shot a robbery suspect who had taken a woman hostage before he barricaded himself inside a Colorado Springs motel room. Police evacuated the motel and crisis negotiators made intermittent contacts with the man, … [Read more...] about 2018 Colorado officer-involved shootings

Defense lawyers have a saying: “If the law is against you, pound on the facts; if the facts are against you, pound on the table.” For military defense lawyers, there is a slight modification: “Before you pound on the table, pound on the chain of command.” Why? Because in the military, leaders are accountable for the failures of their subordinates and military juries are the harshest critics of their colleagues whose leadership failures contribute to misconduct. Indeed, the Vanessa Guillen disappearance at Fort Hood, Texas, and its subsequent fallout, is a prime and recent example of how failures at low levels of the military result in accountability at high levels. With all the public attention focused on police reforms, as a former military officer and lawyer I find it perplexing why leadership accountability is not the central focus of this dialogue. How did a former police officer such as Derek Chauvin get to the point where he felt it was appropriate, as the prosecutor in … [Read more...] about Leadership and accountability: A military lesson for police reform

Research into discrepancies in the use of school safety funding as well as the district’s plan to reduce arrests and expulsions for minority students has led parents and survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School shooting to allege the school district superintendent and school board engaged in misconduct that undermined student safety at the school. Kenneth Preston, a 19-year-old student of the school district, spoke at the Broward County School Board Operational meeting Tuesday evening. His plan was to address his research into the district’s school safety funding and its programs – known as PROMISE and the Behavior Intervention Program – that has led him and a group of parents and student survivors of the shooting to call for an independent investigation into the actions of Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie and the Broward County school board. Though Preston originally planned to deliver the results of his research at the school board meeting, he … [Read more...] about Broward Students, Parents Allege Superintendent, School Board Misconduct Undermined Student Safety

Van Jones is an attorney who has spent 25 years working for police accountability and criminal justice reform. He is the co-founder of three criminal justice organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Dream Corps JUSTICE (formerly #cut50) and the REFORM Alliance. In 1998, he won the Reebok International Human Rights Award for his work against unlawful police violence. In 2018, he helped pass the First Step Act. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN. (CNN) America is bracing for a verdict . After watching footage of a police officer applying brutal force against a man who was handcuffed, crying out for his mother and begging for his life, will the jury find former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd? Or will jurors doubt that Chauvin's actions were a major cause of Floyd's death and let the officer go free? And what will happen after the verdict? America desperately … [Read more...] about Jury is out — no matter the verdict, Congress must act

Officials in the U.S. and overseas are voicing wide support for a white police officer’s murder conviction Tuesday in the death last year of a Black man, George Floyd, with President Joe Biden calling it a “much too rare” outcome in contentious confrontations between white police and minority suspects. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris praised the decision hours after a racially diverse jury in Minneapolis convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin of two types of murder and manslaughter. Minutes later, he was handcuffed and jailed and now faces years in prison, when he is sentenced in eight weeks. Biden, who phoned Floyd’s family after the verdict, called it “a step forward,” but all too rare moment of justice. Studies have shown that in most such U.S. cases, police are either cleared of wrongdoing without charges or acquitted in trials. Biden said systemic racism in the U.S. is a “stain on our nation’s soul,” while saying the verdict “can be a giant step forward in … [Read more...] about Broad Support Expressed for Chauvin Conviction in George Floyd Murder Trial