"I am with LULAC and we are very concerned with the 'use of force.' Citizens are afraid to call the police. Why is there a high number of citizens killed by police who are unarmed (25%)?"
Chief McClelland: HPD has the most extensive training of any LEO agency in this state or in the US bar none. The Command Staff is very diverse. The Chief does not control promotions; it is done by a process. Each rank has a certain number of personnel. Those examinations are competitive written tests and assessment centers ranked by outside vendors. Your score puts you on the rank list; not your skin color. When it comes to the use of deadly force, regarding the dash cam, some will always have them in units such as DWI enforcement. Regarding the gentleman in the wheelchair, a dash cam would not have caught any of the incident. Many incidents happen away from the police car. The police-involved shootings in the 3-4 years since I've been Chief is the most scrutinized.
There is nothing in state law, federal law or training that says an officer cannot fire his/her weapon if the suspect is unarmed. The officer's justification to use deadly force lies with the officers perception. This has been upheld by the US Supreme Court. A police officer can be wrong but not criminally wrong. They make a split second decision to save their live or someone else's life.
The unfortunate case about the amputee in the wheelchair, that case was investigated by Homicide, Harris County Grand Jury, Internal Affairs, Harris County DA and the FBI. They all said the same thing: the officer's decision to use force did not violate law or civil rights. It was a horrible case and was unfortunate. FBI is a Federal Agency; I do not have control over them and they came to the same conclusion.
HPD is made up of 51% minorities. We have 1100 bilingual officers; 900 of them speak Spanish.
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