S.D. Chief Reveals Plan to Cut Police Shootings : Law Enforcement: Critics say measures will do little to keep officers from adding to 1990’s slaying toll of 12.

The San Diego Police Department plans to spend $600,000 on extra training, stun guns, police dogs, Mace canisters, rubber bullets and electric Tasers as part of a sweeping series of changes that Police Chief Bob Burgreen hopes will lower the number of shootings by his officers.

At the same time, Burgreen said Friday he will allow police to fire warning shots in some circumstances, encourage officers to withdraw from a suspect if necessary, put two police officers in many patrol cars for added protection, and increase hand-to-hand physical training.

San Diego police officers have shot and killed 12 people this year and injured 16 others, the highest total in six years.

Faced with a public outcry over the shootings--some of which involved unarmed suspects--Burgreen ordered a study in August touted as the country’s most extensive on the use of police deadly force. He held seven community forums, traveled to 15 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and met with 400 of his officers.

On Friday, with many of his top administrators looking on, Burgreen outlined the results with a introductory caveat: “Even if we implement all of these changes, we cannot for sure predict what is going to happen out there today or tomorrow.”

The $600,000 spending plan includes 22 more police dogs, 65 new Tasers that shoot electricity bolts, 1,500 canisters of a newly developed Mace, rubber bullets that can be used in 12-gauge shotguns, and a small number of Arwen guns that shoot rubber bullets the size of a C battery.

The department already has saved $200,000 for the extra equipment and expects to get $400,000 more from a pool of funds seized in drug raids and from other city money after discussing the plan with the city manager’s office, Burgreen said.

More extensive training, which will include more frequent specialized instruction, will result in a depletion of forces on the street by about 2 1/2%, or about 46 officers, Burgreen said.

“We can’t afford to do that, but we can’t afford not to do it either,” he said.

Burgreen said he would change an internal procedure that now allows any of six police homicide teams to investigate shootings by police officers. The chief said he will assign one permanent team to investigate all officer-involved shootings so that the techniques used to review the incidents are more uniform.

Burgreen said Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller rejected the idea of having the district attorney independently investigate police shootings, a recommendation made last week by San Diego’s Citizen Advisory Board on Police/Community Relations and endorsed by the chief.

Miller told Burgreen that he was highly satisfied with the homicide division’s reports and saw no need for an independent review.

Andrea Skorepa, head of the citizens review panel that made the recommendation, said she is disappointed by Miller’s response.

“We have requested that the district attorney field his own set of investigators to come out to scenes of shootings. Evidently, Mr. Miller is not willing to do that,” she said. “We think it would add to the confidence level of the public. We will talk to Mr. Miller about it.”

The changes in the department proposed Friday do little to address the real problem of officer-involved shootings, according to Mike Crowley, co-chairman of an American Civil Liberties Union committee studying police practices.

“I question whether throwing money at the problem is the answer,” Crowley said. “We are not going to change the situation until we make police officers realize that indiscriminate shooting is not going to be tolerated. Until that is done through disciplinary, or review board or prosecutory means, nothing will happen. Dogs and Tasers sound nice, but they don’t go far enough.”

Crowley is part of a coalition of civic and legal representatives trying to form an independent citizens review board with strong investigative and subpoena powers over the Police Department.

In his presentation Friday, Burgreen said he will add a civilian member to his internal shooting review board, which until now consisted solely of three police commanders.

As he has previously, Burgreen attributed the high number of shootings this year to jail crowding, a lack of proper mental health funding and escalating drug use.

“San Diego has changed, and so has the nature of the kind of people we are dealing with,” he said. “What’s changed? We have a jail system in complete meltdown . . . . Where people, who in any other city, would be in jail and locked up, are walking the streets. What’s changed is that Florida is no longer the international port of entry for drugs coming from Colombia. San Diego is (and) I-5 is the main corridor. That’s changed.”

People in San Diego seem to have the perception that everyone has an equal chance of being shot by police, he said. To dispute that contention, Burgreen said that, of the 28 people who were shot this year, 23 had criminal histories, 22 had been hard-core drug users, five had mental health problems, and all 28 fit in one or more of those categories.

Although San Diego’s police policy says that an officer may not shoot anyone unless his life or that of another person is in danger or anyone in the situation faces bodily harm, Burgreen said he will emphasize in written and verbal policy that the department values human life.

Still, Burgreen defended the department’s use of force this year and said his department’s policy is among the best in the nation.

“Our shooting policy is solid,” he said. “We are not focusing on major policy changes there. What we are focusing on are alternatives to keep the situation from getting to the point where an officer has to shoot: police dogs, better training skills for officers to stop a situation before it escalates . . . . Our policy is as solid and good as any in the country. It is reasonable by all standards.”

In the next few weeks, Burgreen said, he will respond to dozens of recommendations from Skorepa’s public review panel. One of those recommendations is that the department determine whether police officers feel they are always right or must always win, or whether it is better to approach a potential deadly situation more carefully.

“We definitely want to teach officers that backing off is a legitimate strategy,” Burgreen said. “We need to win, but we don’t need to win right away. We can come back and win in five minutes. But we can control the situation, and that will become more a part of our tactics.”