Tucson Police Use of Force Letter
December 2, 2021
Mayor Regina Romero
Tucson City Council
City Hall, 255 W. Alameda
Tucson, AZ 85701
Dear Mayor Romero and Tucson City Council Members,
Earlier this week, we became aware of an incident involving a Tucson Police Department officer using excessive force, which resulted in the death of Richard Lee Richards, a 61-year-old man with a disability. As organizations committed to social justice for people with disabilities, we must bring our concerns and recommendations to your immediate attention.
The fact that Mr. Richards was a person with a disability is of particular concern because persons with disabilities are more likely to die in an encounter with law enforcement than the general population.1 Persons with disabilities are often subject to excessive force and discrimination in their encounters with law enforcement because of bias and stigma regarding disability, whether explicit or implicit. It was reported that Mr. Richards had a previous criminal record however, that does not negate the responsibility of the Tucson Police Department to train their officers appropriately in working with the disability community.
Our concerns:
The officer’s lack of ability to de-escalate the situation. The officer used excessive force against an individual with a disability who had his back turned to the officer; and it appeared that the officer did not attempt to de-escalate the situation before using force.
Situations like this one play out all over the country, in Arizona and now Tucson. TPD touts on its website that it is a “progressive police department, engaged in community policing,” as well as being one of just two police departments in the largest 100 cities in the United States to initiate all of the "8 Can't Wait" policies promoted by Campaign Zero's Use of Force Project. However, this particular incident met none of those measures. And, any training TPD officers have received put to question the fidelity of the department, especially since this is the second incident in a year in which a TPD officer did not de-escalate a situation concerning a person with a disability. These situations are unacceptable, especially for a police department that prides itself on being an integral part of the community.
1 "33-50 percent of police use-of-force incidents involve a person who is disabled," https://www.wthr.com/article/news/33-50-percent-of-police-use-of-force-incidents-involve-a-person-who-is- disabled-has-disability/531-011bddff-a5f0-4d2a-9ad2-6964623bc32d, Last accessed on December 1, 2021.
We recommend that TPD do the following:
Partner with disability experts to provide training on effective communication/interaction between law enforcement and people with disabilities. Arizona Center for Disability Law and Direct Advocacy & Resource Center have extensive disability expertise as well as experience in training law enforcement officers. Our training would inform law enforcement about disability related issues, provide tools and resources that increase knowledge and skills in interactions with the disability community, and strengthen relationships between the disability and law enforcement communities.
Train all officers in a proven crisis response model such as Nonviolent Crisis Intervention through the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI). This model focuses on recognizing the signs for various intervention to minimize the chance for a crisis, particularly verbal de-escalation techniques and physical interventions only as a last resort.
Another recommended training is Mental Health First Aid, which focuses on effective response to individuals with behavioral health and/or substance abuse issues. Further, the undersigned organizations are available as resources.
We respectfully request a response within two weeks to our recommendations and any additional changes the Tucson City Council plans to ensure that what happened to Mr. Richards never happens again to anyone else.
Your website states, “Our officers' use of force is governed by policy, training, supervision, community oversight, accountability, and transparency.” We would like to remind Tucson Police Department of that statement in hopes that by working together, we can make this mission a reality.
Signed,
Arizona Center for Disability Law and DIRECT Center for Independence
