By Kati McQueen, The Indiana Statesman
More than a month after a fatal police shooting at Indiana’s Ball State University, administrators announced several changes to the university’s police policies.
ISU Public Safety Director Bill Mercier said the decades of experience of Indiana State’s police officers and ISU’s police training policy should make students feel safe on campus.
BSU senior Michael McKinney was shot four times by BSU police officer Robert Duplain after Duplain responded alone to a 3:30 a.m. call.
According to a letter issued by BSU president Blaine A. Brownell, the shooting made administrators contemplate their school practices.
The letter by Brownell states, “An event like this should cause us all to question, and you can be assured that I and other Ball State administrators have been asking questions and working to identify and consider possible improvements in our policies and practices both in public safety and in regard to alcohol abuse by students.”
Mercier said ISU’s officers are well trained; the officer with the most experience has done fieldwork for 32 years.
“The training that campus police officers get is at least as good, if not better, than the training that municipal agencies get,” he said.
Mercier said that Indiana law requires that an officer complete the state minimum of a 40-hour pre-basic school before they are hired. The pre-basic school gives courses in basic firearms and defense tactics, along with a Web course that describes Indiana’s police laws, he said.
After they are hired, they have one year to complete the 14-week basic training session at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. The basic training course is offered four times a year, Mercier said.
On top of basic training, ISU officers are cross-trained in other aspects of law enforcement. Mercier said officers spend a few months dispatching and investigating before they take part in fieldwork.
After this training is done, the officers have the chance to do formal field training alongside an experienced officer. Mercier said officers spend the first month observing the actions of the experienced officer, while the second month they do their own work with the help of an experienced officer.
During the third month, new officers do the fieldwork alone, while the experienced officer observes. The officers are evaluated on a weekly basis during the fieldwork training, he said.
“The idea is to let the officers progressively get more experience,” Mercier said.
The last fatal police action shooting on ISU’s campus was on March 15, 1999.
Zedrick S. Johnson, a former student who wasn’t enrolled at the time of the shooting, was seen by two officers climbing the Lincoln Quads fence during spring break.
The officers questioned the man and Johnson confessed to carrying a gun. Johnson ran north of campus after he was asked to turn over the gun and opened fire on the officers, according to an article in the Indiana Statesman. In response, the officers returned seven shots at him. The coroner’s office ruled the cause of death a shot to the head.
Mercier said, “It’s a tragedy any time anyone has to use deadly force ... it’s certainly difficult on everyone involved.”
Ball State and a Delaware County grand jury have cleared Duplain of any wrongdoing in the shooting.
Duplain will return to Ball State as a non-patrol officer after he completes his training at the academy.