Special team scrutinizes use of lethal force

Published 9:07 pm Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A shooting Thursday night involving Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies has added another case to the workload of a special task force.

The Snohomish County Multi-Agency Response Team, or SMART, now has four active cases where police have killed or caused serious injury. That’s more than typical, but it won’t slow the search for what happened, officials said Monday.

When police are involved in a violent incident the events must be carefully scrutinized, and that takes time, said Mark Roe, the Snohomish County deputy prosecutor who reviews all of the team’s investigations to determine whether a crime was committed.

“The idea is that police officers serve the public and have the public trust. Whenever there is a death, we need to know if the officer acting with the public’s trust was exercising it safely,” Roe said.

He acknowledged Monday that there may be the perception among some that police will not thoroughly investigate a fellow officer.

He disagrees.

The biggest benefit of having the team is to have a thorough and unbiased investigation that is available for review by anyone, including the slain person’s family, he said.

“The entire investigation is available through public disclosure laws,” Roe said. “There’s nothing more open than that.”

The Herald and other media routinely obtain copies of the final reports and publish the information.

Since the inception of the SMART in 1998, Roe has not found grounds to file criminal charges against an officer investigated by the team.

“If I think an officer committed a crime, I’ll charge him. I don’t think there’s an officer in the county who doubts that,” he said. “What I don’t do is armchair-quarterback police procedures and protocols. My job is to decide if the person is guilty of a crime and if there is evidence to prove it.”

It could take several months before details become public in each of the recent cases of violence involving police, including the shooting Thursday near Arlington.

That’s when deputies responded around 9:45 p.m. to a domestic violence call in the 11000 block of 228th Street NE.

A man was on a porch and had a handgun, Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said. The man reportedly refused to comply with the deputies’ orders and was shot.

He was in serious condition Monday, Goetz said. His identity has not been released.

The two deputies have been placed on leave. That’s standard procedure.

Thursday’s incident follows three other police shootings. A Stanwood man was killed by gunfire from Everett police on June 10, and a Verlot man was fatally shot May 29 by Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies. A Nov. 8 fatal shooting by Everett police also remains under review.

Part of what makes the investigations take time is waiting for tests on evidence submitted to the Washington State Patrol crime lab, sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.

“We have to wait in line like everyone else,” she said.

The idea for SMART germinated with former sheriff Rick Bart. After his election in 1995, the concept evolved, said John Gray. He’s the former police chief in Arlington and Lake Stevens and at one time worked in the sheriff’s office under Bart. Gray once sat on the governing board for SMART, and he’s now teaching law enforcement topics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

At first, SMART tried to formalize what was a common practice of calling in experienced and trained detectives from Everett police and the sheriff’s office, Gray said.

“What they really wanted to do was get a lot of detectives on the ground” immediately following an incident, he said.

Today, as many as 30 investigators, including a core of veteran major crimes detectives, serve on the team, Hover said.

The team also streamlines evidence collection and case management, Gray said. By rotating oversight between Everett and the sheriff’s office, potential conflicts of interest are avoided.

“The public is getting really well served,” the former police chief said. Other regions around the state have looked to the SMART protocols as a model, he said.

Roe said he believes the team is made up of the best detectives across the county. He pointed to Skagit County’s request in 2008 for the team to investigate the shooting deaths of six people, including a deputy, allegedly by an Alger man.

By contrast, the two largest agencies in King County — the sheriff’s office and Seattle police — investigate their own police-involved shootings, King County sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said.

“There’s probably more scrutiny” than other criminal investigations, he said.

Cases in King County are reviewed by a judge in an inquest. Police and the victim are represented by attorneys.

“The public can come to their own conclusion about whether it was a justified shooting and whether the investigation was complete or not,” Urquhart said.

The inquest method has more procedures, screening and filters to it, Gray said. There’s always behind-the-scenes posturing.

“A case report given to Mark Roe has everything, the little data, the big data,” he said.

Plus, an inquest could be called in Snohomish County if officials determined it was necessary.

“We’ve been down that road before,” he said.

The family of a man shot and killed by Monroe police during a SWAT raid in 2003 demanded an inquest. The jury concluded none of the Monroe officers had committed a crime.

Before making a charging decision, Roe speaks with the victim’s family. They are able to ask questions and tell him what they think he should know. He also discusses the case and the hundreds of pages of documents in each file with fellow prosecutors.

None of the team’s investigations have resulted in criminal charges being filed against police. Roe also declined to file charges against former Brier mayor Gary Starks after the 2006 death of Brier police officer Eddie Thomas. Thomas died of natural causes during a struggle at Starks’ home.

Roe said he is proud to be associated with the team of detectives.

“All the officers are highly trained skill-wise. They’re also trained in restraint,” Gray said. “The last thing we want to do is pull the trigger, but we will pull it.”

Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com.