The Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) - The Dallas police chief has reversed a policy he set this summer requiring officers involved in shootings or deaths to stay on desk duty until being cleared by a grand jury.
Department officials will now review each case within about two weeks of the incident to determine whether the officer can immediately return to regular duties.
Police Chief David Kunkle told The Dallas Morning News for its Friday editions that he reversed his decision because “there was no assurance that we could get the case in front of the grand jury in any sort of a reasonable or predictable time frame.”
It often takes months for cases to be reviewed by grand juries.
The change got mixed reviews from police associations and advocates expressed guarded skepticism.
The Rev. Ronald Wright said he remains hopeful of continued dialogue over the policy and said a formal mechanism for community input into decisions about returning officers to the street would go a long way to instilling confidence in the police. “Other than that, I’m skeptical,” he said.
Kunkle first changed the policy in July after a furor arose over the case of Pedro Fernandez, 33, who passed out and died while in police custody in June. The case was ruled a homicide, with the 300-pound man’s death influenced by an enlarged heart, severely clogged arteries, restraint asphyxia, physiologic stress and drug use.
Seven officers who were at the scene when police subdued Fernandez were initially placed on administrative leave but returned to work almost immediately. On July 8 after the medical examiner’s findings were released, Kunkle placed the officers on desk duty.
Days later, he announced the policy that kept officers involved in the death of a person or a shooting leading to death or injury on restrictive duty, known as desk duty, until cleared by a grand jury.
The officers returned to regular duty in late September when they were cleared by a grand jury.
The change over the summer in policy angered police associations, who said it placed an unfair stigma on officers and harmed them economically by restricting them from part-time, off-duty jobs.
Senior Cpl. George Aranda, president of the Latino Peace Officers Association, said Thursday that he’s pleased with the new policy.
“This gets officers back on the street and back to regular duty,” Aranda said.
But Senior Cpl. Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association, said he thinks the department should use the pre-July policy, in which an officer was typically placed on one day of administrative leave and then allowed to return to his normal assignment until the grand jury made a decision.
Restrictive duty “just gives the appearance that the officer’s being punished,” White said.
Policies on dealing with in-custody deaths or police shootings vary from city to city.