Bend PD report shows significant drop in officers’ use of force last year
Bend PD says most of its calls for service are related to mental health crises
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Bend Police Department says it saw a significant increase in the number of calls for service it received last year, but fewer incidents that led to the use of force.
In its 2019 force response report released earlier this year, which contains data from as far back as 2015, Bend PD said officers responded to 98,017 calls for service and made 4,250 arrests.
Bend PD said only 76 of those arrests resulted in the use of force, which could be translated to 1 in 1,342 contacts (.07%) that resulted in a forceful response. That's down from 93 such incidents the prior year.
The report said changes in patrol tactics, increases in scenario-based training and crisis intervention training all have helped maintain low force response numbers.
NewsChannel 21 spoke Wednesday with Bend police Lt. Juli McConkey to learn when use of force would be deemed necessary.
“Force would be used if somebody is resisting or tugging away from an officer,” McConkey said. “That’s considered force, if you have to use a control hold or a Taser.”
The report said when force response was applied, officers used lower levels of force and suspects often had minimal to no injuries. The most commonly used type of force was a joint or arm takedown.
In a breakdown of the race and gender of subjects involved in a force response incident last year, 70% of the subjects were white/Caucasian males and 18.5% of the subjects were white/Caucasian females.
Bend police reported 2.6% of the subjects were African American males and 6.6% were Hispanic males.
“The Bend Police Department is committed to keeping our community safe, and in response to our force response report, it’s fairly low, looking at other cities compared to our size,” McConkey said.
She said the department is working on finalizing its "8 Can’t Wait" initiative, eight policies that have already been adopted by other cities' law enforcement agencies across the U.S. in an effort to decrease fatal police encounters.
Find more information about the national 8 Can't Wait campaign on its website.
