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Touchy feely vs. SWAT
First of all, let me apologize for the length, but Daytona Beach News Journal is picky about how long articles can be accessed.
Recent standoffs spur debate on use of deadly force
When the Volusia County sheriff's SWAT team heard a gunshot inside a barricaded Deltona home, the marksmen didn't immediately blast their way in.
Having used a battering ram to break open the door, they were coaxing a slight, 50-year-old woman from the home when the shot rang out from inside.
Afterward, repeated attempts to make contact with the woman's husband inside failed. Several hours passed and deputies decided to fire tear gas and go in.
That's when SWAT team members found the body of 63-year-old Donald Robinson, who died from a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head.
Two recent Deltona deaths -- the suicide and an earlier fatal shooting of a barricaded man by sheriff's sharpshooters -- have sparked renewed debate about the use of deadly force in standoffs.
"It certainly wasn't a bum's rush to the door," said Chief Deputy Bill Lee of the April 2 standoff, the second in a week and the fifth incident in the last month in which police or civilians have fired shots in self defense.
In the earlier standoff, the sheriff's SWAT team shot and killed Vincent Zirakian, 69, who fired on them from inside his home, Lee said.
In both standoffs, the gunmen would not allow any type of communication to take place, even when deputies tossed cell phones through a window and tried to establish contact through a loudspeaker, Lee said.
And in both standoffs, apparent mental distress on the part of the gunmen led to their deaths, Lee said.
"Absent having a crystal ball, it doesn't negate the fact that these were very dangerous individuals," Lee said. "We train our officers and we rely on them to make good decisions in the field. If you believe your life or the lives of others are in danger then you are justified in using deadly force."
The use of force does draw critics.
"They don't need that show of force," Linda Murphy, an advocate for the mentally ill, said of the weaponry and sheer numbers of officers used in standoffs.
"It scares them and the end result is obvious," said Murphy, president of the Volusia and Flagler chapter of National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Lee is a 28-year law enforcement veteran who has been with the Sheriff's Office for 15 months and was formerly head of the Daytona Beach regional office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He makes no apology for department procedure.
"We have to think about protecting innocent lives of the officers and people in the neighborhood," Lee said.
Steven T. Holmes, a criminologist at the University of Central Florida, said there's no easy solution in dealing with people in crisis, who literally see the standoff as "their last stand."
"There are triggers," Holmes said. "For the person living on the edge, it's a rational decision, but the rest of us know it's an irrational situation."
Often, police encounter someone who already has decided to kill or be killed -- the latter is known as "suicide by cop," Holmes said. "They lose all hope and it's a way for them to check out," Holmes said.
Police, through their training and experience, recognize such circumstances, he said.
Non-lethal weapons such as Tasers, pepper spray, rubber bullets and tear gas may not be enough to defuse the situation, even after coddling of a gunman by a trained SWAT negotiator, Holmes said.
Randall Marshall, legal director of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, agrees to an extent.
"The problem is the tradition of the show of force," Marshall said. "In some cases it actually ratchets up the situation rather than calming it down if the person inside feels like they are in a war zone."
Steve Leifman, a Miami-Dade county judge and a mental health advocate, said there seem to be common stresses that send people over the edge -- mental distress, money problems, marital or domestic discord.
"The less cavalry the better," Leifman said of the arsenals traditionally deployed by police agencies in standoffs.
Leifman is a strong advocate of the "Crisis Intervention Team" established a decade ago by the police department in Memphis, Tenn. There, a select group of trained officers receives intense training from health-care professionals who donate their time and expertise to try to reach out to the mentally ill before they reach a crisis point.
Dr. Randolph T. Dupont, a crisis intervention mentor and teacher, told The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis, "We train (police) so that when they arrive on the scene, they can assess the scene and have the resources so they are able to de-escalate with the individual."
The "Memphis model" -- in which authorities emphasize communication and counseling over a show of force -- has been adopted by about 50 large police departments across the country in the last several years, said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina.
Alpert, however, said the overwhelming presence of SWAT teams has benefits, too.
"When the SWAT arrives, a lot of times, people come to their senses and give up," Alpert said. "Rarely do the police have to fire."
Sometimes, though, when a shot is fired, the result can be risky, he said, referring to an incident in Orlando two years ago in which a police sniper accidentally shot and killed a hostage.
David Klinger, a criminologist at the University of Missouri at St. Louis and an expert on SWAT tactics, said a SWAT team is forced to shoot to kill less than 10 percent of the time.
Klinger said it's important for the public to realize that "a suicidal person can easily become a homicidal person."
Occasionally, a police officer, even armed and supported by other cops, can become a victim of homicide in these circumstances, Klinger said.
That point is not lost on Lee and other local police administrators when thinking about the 1982 killing of sheriff's deputy Steve Saboda, 35, who died from gunfire from a man with an assault rifle in a DeLand home who later fatally shot himself.
Before the recent standoffs, the last Volusia or Flagler county resident killed by a police sniper was Helen Lucille McConnell, 61, of Oak Hill, a woman who fired a dozen rounds at police before she was killed at her rural home 11 years ago.
I'll have more on this later, but now I have to go take care of some stuff....
Recent standoffs spur debate on use of deadly force
When the Volusia County sheriff's SWAT team heard a gunshot inside a barricaded Deltona home, the marksmen didn't immediately blast their way in.
Having used a battering ram to break open the door, they were coaxing a slight, 50-year-old woman from the home when the shot rang out from inside.
Afterward, repeated attempts to make contact with the woman's husband inside failed. Several hours passed and deputies decided to fire tear gas and go in.
That's when SWAT team members found the body of 63-year-old Donald Robinson, who died from a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head.
Two recent Deltona deaths -- the suicide and an earlier fatal shooting of a barricaded man by sheriff's sharpshooters -- have sparked renewed debate about the use of deadly force in standoffs.
"It certainly wasn't a bum's rush to the door," said Chief Deputy Bill Lee of the April 2 standoff, the second in a week and the fifth incident in the last month in which police or civilians have fired shots in self defense.
In the earlier standoff, the sheriff's SWAT team shot and killed Vincent Zirakian, 69, who fired on them from inside his home, Lee said.
In both standoffs, the gunmen would not allow any type of communication to take place, even when deputies tossed cell phones through a window and tried to establish contact through a loudspeaker, Lee said.
And in both standoffs, apparent mental distress on the part of the gunmen led to their deaths, Lee said.
"Absent having a crystal ball, it doesn't negate the fact that these were very dangerous individuals," Lee said. "We train our officers and we rely on them to make good decisions in the field. If you believe your life or the lives of others are in danger then you are justified in using deadly force."
The use of force does draw critics.
"They don't need that show of force," Linda Murphy, an advocate for the mentally ill, said of the weaponry and sheer numbers of officers used in standoffs.
"It scares them and the end result is obvious," said Murphy, president of the Volusia and Flagler chapter of National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Lee is a 28-year law enforcement veteran who has been with the Sheriff's Office for 15 months and was formerly head of the Daytona Beach regional office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He makes no apology for department procedure.
"We have to think about protecting innocent lives of the officers and people in the neighborhood," Lee said.
Steven T. Holmes, a criminologist at the University of Central Florida, said there's no easy solution in dealing with people in crisis, who literally see the standoff as "their last stand."
"There are triggers," Holmes said. "For the person living on the edge, it's a rational decision, but the rest of us know it's an irrational situation."
Often, police encounter someone who already has decided to kill or be killed -- the latter is known as "suicide by cop," Holmes said. "They lose all hope and it's a way for them to check out," Holmes said.
Police, through their training and experience, recognize such circumstances, he said.
Non-lethal weapons such as Tasers, pepper spray, rubber bullets and tear gas may not be enough to defuse the situation, even after coddling of a gunman by a trained SWAT negotiator, Holmes said.
Randall Marshall, legal director of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, agrees to an extent.
"The problem is the tradition of the show of force," Marshall said. "In some cases it actually ratchets up the situation rather than calming it down if the person inside feels like they are in a war zone."
Steve Leifman, a Miami-Dade county judge and a mental health advocate, said there seem to be common stresses that send people over the edge -- mental distress, money problems, marital or domestic discord.
"The less cavalry the better," Leifman said of the arsenals traditionally deployed by police agencies in standoffs.
Leifman is a strong advocate of the "Crisis Intervention Team" established a decade ago by the police department in Memphis, Tenn. There, a select group of trained officers receives intense training from health-care professionals who donate their time and expertise to try to reach out to the mentally ill before they reach a crisis point.
Dr. Randolph T. Dupont, a crisis intervention mentor and teacher, told The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis, "We train (police) so that when they arrive on the scene, they can assess the scene and have the resources so they are able to de-escalate with the individual."
The "Memphis model" -- in which authorities emphasize communication and counseling over a show of force -- has been adopted by about 50 large police departments across the country in the last several years, said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina.
Alpert, however, said the overwhelming presence of SWAT teams has benefits, too.
"When the SWAT arrives, a lot of times, people come to their senses and give up," Alpert said. "Rarely do the police have to fire."
Sometimes, though, when a shot is fired, the result can be risky, he said, referring to an incident in Orlando two years ago in which a police sniper accidentally shot and killed a hostage.
David Klinger, a criminologist at the University of Missouri at St. Louis and an expert on SWAT tactics, said a SWAT team is forced to shoot to kill less than 10 percent of the time.
Klinger said it's important for the public to realize that "a suicidal person can easily become a homicidal person."
Occasionally, a police officer, even armed and supported by other cops, can become a victim of homicide in these circumstances, Klinger said.
That point is not lost on Lee and other local police administrators when thinking about the 1982 killing of sheriff's deputy Steve Saboda, 35, who died from gunfire from a man with an assault rifle in a DeLand home who later fatally shot himself.
Before the recent standoffs, the last Volusia or Flagler county resident killed by a police sniper was Helen Lucille McConnell, 61, of Oak Hill, a woman who fired a dozen rounds at police before she was killed at her rural home 11 years ago.
I'll have more on this later, but now I have to go take care of some stuff....
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