Why police officers are rarely convicted in shootings
Antwon Rose is among an estimated 900 to 1,000 people experts predict will die this year from police bullets.
Michael Rosfeld, the East Pittsburgh police officer charged in Rose's June 19 death, is among a much smaller group.
He is the 87th state or local police officer charged with murder or manslaughter in such deaths during the past 13 years.
Bowling Green State University criminology professor Philip Stinson, a former police officer and attorney turned academician, has been tracking data about such incidents since 2005 and
recently published his findings .
While the public conversation surrounding police shootings recently has grown louder, Stinson said the statistics haven't budged for years. Among all those reports that covered a variety of incidents, Stinson said the circumstances surrounding Rose's death caught his eye.
“I couldn't think of a more horrific fact pattern,” Stinson said. Confronted with cellphone video of the shooting, eyewitness statements, conflicting accounts by Rosfeld and successive days of peaceful marches demanding “Justice for Antwon,” Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. on Wednesday charged Rosfeld with criminal homicide. Rose, 17, of Rankin was fatally shot while running away from Rosfeld after a traffic stop in East Pittsburgh. Rose had been a passenger in a car that matched the description of one involved in a drive-by shooting in North Braddock about 15 minutes earlier.
While charges are rare, Stinson said cases in which an officer is convicted of the most serious charges are even rarer. To date, 73 cases have worked their way through the courts. One officer has been convicted of murder, he said.
The criminal homicide charge against Rosfeld includes first-, second- and third-degree murder, as well as voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
University of South Carolina law professor Seth Stoughton, also a former police officer, said prosecutors face high hurdles in such cases.
First and foremost, Stoughton said, many believe police officers are more truthful than those they police. And then there is the need to determine whether the use of force was justified.
“When an officer takes a bribe, it is very easy for juries to convict that officer. When an officer commits a sexual assault, it is usually pretty easy to conclude that the officer committed a crime. That's because taking a bribe or committing sexual assault is not something that an officer is ever supposed to do. But the use of force is a little different because officers do legitimately use force in the performance of their duty,” Stoughton said.
Moreover, police in many states are offered special protections or collective bargaining agreements. In some states, they must be presented with evidence against them before they can be questioned. In states such as Maryland, an officer can request that interviews be delayed for up to 10 days.
Race and class can also be issues when jury selection procedures seem stacked against the selection of those without driver's licenses or voter registration cards and miserly pay for jury duty — as little as $4 a day in some jurisdictions — tends to limit the number of low- and middle-income individuals willing to serve.
Bystander cellphone video, police dash cameras and surveillance video are changing the narrative from one controlled by police. Such video has been a factor in triggering criminal charges in cases ranging from the April 4, 2015, police shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, S.C., to the July 6, 2016, shooting of Philando Castile in suburban Minneapolis to the Rose shooting.
“I would suggest, due to the limited facts in the Rose case, it is because of the existence and publication of the video by a bystander that charges were filed. In the absence of that, with the clip in his pocket and two firearms in the car, you can see how the webs could have been spun pretty quickly that the officer's actions could be justified,” Stinson said.
But even video that calls into question the police version of events doesn't always guarantee a conviction.
In the Castile and Scott cases, bystander videos that triggered intense public debate and raised questions about police statements failed to persuade jurors of an officer's guilt.
In the Minnesota case, jurors weren't persuaded by the video Castile's girlfriend uploaded of a police officer shooting Castile seven times as he reached for his driver's license after being pulled over for a traffic stop. They acquitted Officer Jeronimo Yanez of charges of second-degree manslaughter.
In the Scott case, a bystander video that showed an unarmed Walter Scott being shot as he ran from police after a traffic stop was among evidence that prompted authorities to file a murder charge against Officer Michael Slager. When Slager's trial ended in a hung jury, federal authorities who had backstopped the case with a civil rights investigation filed charges.
Slager ultimately pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
In Allegheny County, Zappala said his office is talking with the FBI about any possible
federal charges .
He also has questioned the lack of policies of the East Pittsburgh Police Department, the small-town department that employed Rosfeld.
Laurie Robinson, the George Mason University criminology professor who co-chaired the Obama Administration's
Task Force on 21st Century Policing , said research has shown many police shootings occur in small jurisdictions that rely heavily on part-time police officers who may lack adequate training or supervision.
Robinson said that isn't a condemnation of officers who lack training.
“But if they're given lethal force and put in difficult situations where they have to exercise that discretion in a split-second situation, we're probably not making the best decisions as a society. And our governmental authorities need to step back and decide whether that is the best way to organize policing,” Robinson said.
The task force, formed in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo., included representatives from across the country from law enforcement, civil rights groups and academia. It came up with 59 best practices for police departments, including listening sessions and building relationships between communities and police departments.
Robinson said that won't be easy.
“The law enforcement culture really needs to own a guardian mindset rather than a warrior mindset. ... We want them to be not an occupying force; we want them to be on the side of the citizens,” Robinson said.
