Panel Backs Police on Shooting Inquiries

After examining 17 police shootings and the controversial death last year of Tommie Dubose, the San Diego County Grand Jury on Thursday said it has full confidence in the way the San Diego Police Department and the district attorney investigate officer-related shootings. The officers have been exonerated in all of the cases.

In defending the increasing number of police shootings in San Diego, the grand jury pointed to a corresponding rise in drug and gang activity in the city.

“The prevalence of weapons of all types is such that police realistically must assume that suspects are armed,” the grand jury’s report said. “It is indeed correct to say that officers often operate in a hostile, armed-camp environment.”

The grand jury’s conclusions, praised by the police, drew immediate and sharp reactions from critics of police conduct.

“It makes a mockery of the whole system,” said James Randall, a Long Beach attorney representing Dubose’s widow. “It’s a travesty. You don’t shoot that many people, and Tommie Dubose, and say there’s nothing wrong with this Police Department. This is disgusting.”

Vernon Sukumu, director of the Black Federation, said that, because only the police and the district attorney investigate police shootings, the community is forced to accept their word in every case.

“What has existed in this Police Department and most police departments is that, when something is wrong, they refuse to do something about it, and we have to wait for a confession 20 years later on ’60 Minutes’ or ‘20/20,’ ” he said.

“So the problem we have is the presumption that officers are perfect and correct all the time.”

Grand jury foreman Armistead B. Smith Jr., whose panel recently issued highly critical reports about the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, disagreed with those who contend he is being soft on the Police Department.

“I would invite anyone in any area to go through the same steps that we have in reviewing the process and to come up with any measured opinion that differs from what we have come up with,” he said. “And I would be pleased to debate anyone who did so.

“Any characterization of the San Diego Police Department as being a group of trigger-happy officers is not justified. And anyone that makes such a characterization should come forth with some real facts.”

Visited Shooting Sites

He said the grand jury visited shooting sites and police training facilities and participated in police ride-alongs, drug raids and police briefings. The jurors also “comprehensively studied” the 18 case records and took testimony from witnesses to the shootings over a 10-month period.

“The members of this jury have lived with the San Diego Police Department,” Smith said. “They have lived with the San Diego Police Department at all levels. At the top leadership levels, at the top management levels, at the intermediate management levels, and with the working individuals of the force.”

The grand jury’s report lists three recommendations for the Police Department:

- Continue its current review policies regarding officer-related shootings.

- Obtain a video shooting simulation training program for officers.

- Conduct drug sweeps, which precipitated the Dubose shooting, “only after full consideration of their costs and benefits in terms of enforcement objectives as well as officer and public safety.”

Police Chief Bob Burgreen said the department “is moving toward implementation of all of the grand jury’s recommendations.”

“This report,” the chief said, “makes a significant contribution to the welfare of our officers and the entire community.”

Other than the Dubose shooting, which caused an outcry against the police by black community leaders, none of the remaining police shooting deaths, which occurred between Jan. 1, 1987, and last June 30, were identified.

Of the deaths, three involved police responses to family or neighborhood disturbances, and four involved shootings by the Border Patrol Crime Prevention Unit.

Threatened Officers

“In the four border shooting incidents,” the report said, “each victim had threatened the officers with robbery and with a lethal weapon.”

The report also said that a “considerable decrease in reported crime” has occurred when the border unit is in the field.

The grand jury did not take a stand on recent criticism of the border unit and the plan announced recently to reactivate the task force. The grand jury also did not evaluate the need for a strong police review board as an outside agency to monitor police misconduct.

Smith, in defending the internal police and district attorney review process, said the grand jury report should not be construed as a blanket endorsement.

“It’s obvious that errors in judgment are made and will be made in the future,” the grand jury foreman said.

“But we are saying that the leadership of the San Diego Police Department is dedicated to controlling the use of firearms in the proper manner and that, when firearms are used, they are equally dedicated to finding out the true facts.”

In the aftermath of the Dubose shooting in March, 1988, the district attorney exonerated the police of any criminal wrongdoing. But the district attorney also sharply criticized the department and warned it to change its “knock-and-notice” procedures before bursting into homes to serve high-risk search warrants.