Fine Line in Use of Force by the Police : * Laguna Beach Case Could Lead to Useful Guidelines

The Rodney King beating case, and the recently released Christopher Commission report, have been watched with great interest around the nation and throughout Southern California.

Their long shadow was apparent early on. Some local law enforcement officers and the county’s Human Relations Commission chairman even conducted a dialogue on ways of dealing appropriately with such issues in Orange County.

This healthy public debate has been accompanied by Orange County’s own very visible videotaping case, which by coincidence was playing out in public hearings in Laguna Beach at precisely the same time that the Christopher Commission report was being aired in Los Angeles. The case involves the dismissal of Laguna Beach Officer Keith R. Knotek by Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. in May. The officer was fired on grounds that his conduct in kicking a homeless man whose arrest was videotaped outside a wild party last summer was deemed inappropriate and excessive.

In this case, it is the officer himself who has brought the incident again into the public eye. He elected to have his hearing before the city’s Personnel Board conducted in public, even though he could have had it behind closed doors. The board now is considering whether to recommend that Knotek be rehired, a decision that ultimately will be made by the city manager.

The citizens of Laguna Beach know one thing as they await a ruling from their local government. They have a chief who was concerned enough about what message a kicking incident would send that he held an internal investigation, and was willing to dismiss an officer once he concluded that the use of force was excessive. Now the chief finds that his decision is under review by his own city.

The hearings have been particularly instructive, as Orange County reflects on the ramifications of the King case and on the larger question of the excessive use of force by police. While in Los Angeles, police leadership has been under fire for failing to curb police brutality, we have in Laguna Beach an instance where a chief decided against one of his own officers. This is so in the face of conflicting testimony before the Personnel Board over whether or not the use of force was excessive.

The specific question was whether Knotek’s kicking of a suspect, who fought two officers trying to handcuff him on a Coast Highway sidewalk, was unnecessary. Santa Ana Police Sgt. Joe Kahapea, head of the arrest and control program at Golden West College’s police academy, told the board that the kicks seemed to be defensive in nature, so that the arrested man could be restrained from hitting another officer. But two officers from other departments testified that kicking an unarmed man flailing on the ground was excessive.

What do we learn from all this? For one thing, that suburban police departments face many of the same tests in apprehending suspects as those in big cities. This particular case shows how fine the line can be between acceptable restraint and too much of it.

While the Rodney King case was a clear example of excessive beating of a suspect, the Laguna Beach case was less clear-cut. Moreover, it’s obvious that there are differences of opinion, even within the law enforcement community, about how much kicking is too much. And there’s a perception issue: It may be that even a single kick, within training guidelines, might seem on videotape to be one kick too many.

Anything local departments can do to clarify guidelines both for their personnel and for the public will, in the long run, be time well spent.