Best police practices

Oh man it was just a few weeks ago they told us we were so so close to having a constitutionally compliant police department in New Orleans.   In light of that, it's pretty embarrassing to find a bunch of cops running through the heart of downtown just shooting this way and that like Yosemite Sam or whatever.

Bursey was still on Canal Street when he saw one of the uniformed officers get out of their car, Liviccari said. That’s when Bursey started shooting, he said.

Police returned fire as Bursey fled around the corner on Elk Place, near the bus stop, then went through the park on the neutral ground and took a right at the next block, to Cleveland Avenue, then a left on South Saratoga Street, then to Tulane Avenue. Near Tulane Medical Center on Tulane Avenue, he “ducks in some of those bushes,” Livaccari said. Officers spotted him and gave verbal commands, he said, Bursey shot at them again. It was at that point the state trooper who had been called to help fired his gun at and fatally struck Bursey.

Why did they fire back? Were they supposed to do that?  According this, they probably weren't even supposed to confront the guy in that situation.  

Statuary law from a 1968 case, Terry v. Ohio, authorizes police to stop, question, and even detain a person without a warrant if they have “reasonable suspicion.” The stop of Bursey likely fits in the category of a so-called “Terry stop,” but “Terry stops have risks as well,” said LSU School of Public Health criminologist Peter Scharf.

Before stopping Bursey, Scharf said, officers should consider if the person could be armed. NOPD preliminary reports show a gun was involved in both the Central City armed robberies the detectives were investigating. Livaccari said a gun was taken either during the Feb. 8 hold-up on Clio Street or in Saturday’s carjacking on Josephine and Carondelet streets.

Best practices in police departments around the country call for officers to weigh the risks of approaching a target with “any possible harm to the police officers, the subject and, especially, to bystanders,” Scharf said.

Even if a suspect then shoots his or her weapon, that does not automatically call for the same response from officers, he added.

See the "best practices" tell us that real life isn't like an action movie. You really do have to worry about what happens to the extras.  You have to make some effort, at least.

Livaccari said he had no information about whose gunfire struck the bystanders, but noted that at “some point,” Bursey was firing his gun “indiscriminately.” He said he was told Bursey at one point was seen “firing behind him while running forward.”

“Police at least were aiming,” Livaccari said.

 At least they aimed.