Could coming training have prevented DuBose death?

University of Cincinnati was working to set up deeper training for police officers on exactly the type of encounter that led a campus officer to shoot and kill an unarmed motorist last month, The Enquirer has learned.

“That’s why I haven’t slept in three weeks,” UC Police Chief Jason Goodrich told The Enquirer last week. “It breaks my heart.”

The campus police department was approved to buy an electronic firearms simulator designed to train officers in real-life scenarios before then-Officer Ray Tensing shot and killed Samuel DuBose during a traffic stop July 19. Tensing has been charged with murder and has a trial set to begin in November.

“Our basic-level training – on use of force and our range training – was pretty good,” Goodrich said in his first in-depth interview since the incident. “Our (nonlethal training) was mostly in the realm of active-shooter drills – which is a big issue on college campuses – but it wasn’t as much scenario-based as far as felony stops, traffic stops and things like that.”

As UC students returned to campus last week, top public safety officials sat down with The Enquirer to discuss a handful of policy changes designed to bring more accountability and better training to a police department under heavy scrutiny. In a wide-ranging interview, Goodrich and Vice President for Safety and Reform Robin Engel addressed several issues facing the department, including some changes that already have been made.

In addition to moving ahead with plans to buy the firearms-training simulator, changes include:

• Body camera footage is now spot-checked rather than reviewed only after a citizen complaint.
• Officers now use contact cards designed to track the demographics of people they stop.
• The department has launched a data system that tracks each officers’ use of force.

UC has made the changes even as a New York-based consultant conducts and internal review of the police department. Those changes are in addition to the hiring of three new high-paid public safety officials to join Goodrich in attempting to reform the 73-officer department.

Body camera footage was critical to a grand jury’s decision to indict Tensing on the murder charge. But UC was not regularly auditing the footage prior to Tensing firing a bullet into DuBose’s head. The policy enacted with the introduction of body cameras last fall didn’t include an auditing procedure, Goodrich said.

Now, however, a shift supervisor is supposed to spot check at least three videos a week. UC’s professional standards department also is instructed to spot check several more each month.

Engel emphasized that because body cameras are new nationwide, there isn’t an accepted protocol yet for handling the footage.

“Body cameras and policies across the country are in flux now,” Engel said. “One of the things we’ll be looking at is best practices.”

The university also is taking a look at its traffic-stop protocols. As The Enquirer previously reported, UC cops handed out 932 traffic citations through July, more than in all of 2014 and three times as many as in 2012. Officers gave 62 percent of those tickets to black motorists and pedestrians, up from 43 percent in 2012.

“Traffic stops can be an effective crime-control strategy,” Engel said. “What we need to do, though, is make very, very sure that those traffic stops are based on things about criminal suspicion, and they’re not just a proxy for race. That’s the issue, of course, across the country.”

Goodrich agreed: “Are you using them because a car has circled the block a couple of times and it’s a high-crime robbery area, or are you just on a fishing expedition?”

To help better track the demographics of motorists, UC officers have started using contacts cards. Officers are to fill out the cards and file them regardless of whether a citation was issued.

“We weren’t tracking who we stopped,” Goodrich said. “If I made a field interview or a traffic stop and gave you a verbal warning, I had no idea who we stopped or why.”

On Aug. 1, UC launched a data-tracking system that allows administrators and supervisors to more closely monitor each time an officer has to use force. The system, for example, can send Goodrich an email if one of his officers was involved in more use-of-force cases than his peers. The chief also could be notified if an officer is named in multiple citizen complaints.

“It’s a tracking mechanism that flags outliers,” Engel said.

UC officials also discussed the dramatic uptick in the number of times officers have drawn their guns and used physical force this year. As first reported by The Enquirer, data showed UC officers had drawn their guns or used physical force 16 times so far this year – compared to two times in both 2013 and 2014.

UC’s use-of-force data, obtained by The Enquirer through a public records request, show the dramatic increase began in March and accelerated through the summer. The data were compiled through July 3. The Enquirer also included the July 19 shooting in the total use-of-force data so far in 2015.

The numbers are a bit misleading, Goodrich said. Not only has the department hired more cops to nearly double its ranks in the past year, but officers’ activities also changed. Officers were handling more felony warrant arrests, during which it’s standard to have a weapon drawn, and UC’s use-of-force records include all instances where a weapon is pulled from its holster.

“It’s not like they’re just running around cowboy-style,” Goodrich said. “They have legitimate scenarios where you would draw your weapon.”

Reporter Amber Hunt contributed.