Chandler Police Department Citizen's Review

CHANDLER–The Chandler Police Department held a Citizen’s Panel for Review of Police Complaints and Use of Force on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. The panel is made up of 15 civilian members and six police members who review incident summaries and videos to ensure that the Chandler Police Department are using appropriate measures for the safety of the police department, those who are being taken under arrest and the community.

The Chandler Police Department reported an approximate 0.23% decrease in total number of arrests with use of force in the second quarter of 2021. There were a total of 2,064 arrests in which only 20 of those cases were instances of force being used. With both half of the reported cases resulting in the use of either a low or intermediate use of force.
Vice Chair Member Laurie Fagen questioned why an officer was reported to have left his body worn camera at the station to charge. Wondering if he left without a body worn camera because there was an issue with lack of fully charged cameras or an issue with not having enough cameras due to budget concerns. Detective George Arias responded by saying, “They don’t just charge, but they download all the videos from the shift that they had... Depends on how much data is being transferred on top of the charging. So, the charge can take maybe three or four hours to charge.” Detective Arias explained that the more video footage that is being downloaded from the body worn camera has an effect on how long it will take it to fully charge.
While reviewing video footage of incidents involving the use of force, Panel member Sandra Woods stated that, “when you read these reports you kind of envision what’s going on, but I certainly appreciate seeing the actual body cam footage.”

After reviewing one of the Incident Review Summaries involving an officer who used a tackle and a fist strike to control the subject Panel Member Chris Heo explained, “if there is a certain type of strike that should be used depending in a situation.” Detective Arias elaborates that it is a “case by case and obviously it is up to the officers discretion and then obviously has to pass his Litmus test, but in this situation we had a person who is actively fleeing from the police. And so that’s generally why the tackle happened. And that’s what they opt to when they are not following commands. Like in the video previously, with the taser, after a while you gain compliance and then when the other officer showed up the officer was just waiting. Because at that point it would have been inappropriate to use that force again. So the same thing in this situation here. Based on the officer's role, raise their level of force to meet the force of that. Now that does not necessarily say that they have to wait, they don’t have to be attacked or something like that; but Officer Rimbach in this situation used the strikes, the tackling strike, to gain compliance.”