By Eric Stock
NORMAL – An Illinois State University professor said there are certain myths regarding the use of police force that he’d like to dispel.
The American Civil Liberties Union is hosting a community forum on the subject on Wednesday night. Professor Jason Ingram told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, police have broad powers to protect themselves and the public, which can be left for interpretation.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Ingram on WJBC.
“What’s reasonable to some, like a police officer, isn’t necessarily going to be viewed reasonable by the public,” Ingram said. “Those are pretty permissive and intended to be so.”
Ingram said there’s no requirement officers use less-intrusive means when possible such as using a taser instead of a gun, unless a police department adopts such a policy on its own.
Ingram said he hopes new laws in Illinois regulating the use of police body cameras will prevent police brutality. He noted so far show presence of the cameras lead to more civil behavior.
“Use of force incidents and complaints of police misconduct have dropped significantly since their implementation,”
Ingram added what’s not clear is how the cameras are affecting behavior, whether officers, the public or both are less prone to confrontation with the cameras present. He said it’s also possible some misconduct claims can be proven unfounded by the cameras.
The new law will ban the police use of strangeholds when subduing a subject, but Ingram said he doubts that such force will be gone entirely.
“It will be viewed as inappropriate or excessive now but when an officer is trying to gain control of a resistant subject and it escalates, they might resort back to training,” Ingram said.
Ingram said the Community Relations Improvement Act also creates a statewide database that tracks police misconduct issues.
The forum begins at 7 p.m. at the Normal Public Library.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
