Bluffton police are changing their use of force policy. What to know
Bluffton Police officers will now be required to step in and stop colleagues who are using excessive force and to report such incidents to their superiors, according to a policy addition made after the death of a Black man in Minneapolis while in police custody and a subsequent meeting with local activists.
The changes come as former Bluffton Police Chief Christopher Chapmond, now Acting Chief Scott Chandler, and Capt. Joe Babkiewicz met this month with young organizers from a Bluffton Black Lives Matter protest to review the department’s use of force policies, Babkiewicz said.
Bluffton police are now required to intervene if “another Officer is using force in violation of law or Department policy,” according to the new rule.
The intervention rule is part of the #8CANTWAIT campaign, which the organizers brought to the attention of Bluffton police, according to Babkiewicz. The campaign asks police to focus on de-escalation and to ban practices such as chokeholds, something the department already prohibits.
The new Bluffton policy, referred to as “duty to intervene,” also requires officers, on or off duty, who witness or hear about “excessive, unlawful, or inappropriate use of force by another law enforcement officer” to report it.
Another addition says officers have “a duty to provide medical attention as long as it is safe and reasonable to do so.”
Babkiewicz said Chapmond had first begun looking into the changes when a Minneapolis police officer was implicated in the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man.
National calls for the intervention policy arose after video was released of Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes while other officers looked on.
Bluffton organizing
Walter Wheeler, 20, a junior at the University of South Carolina, helped form a student-led activist group “Know Better, Do Better” that “advocates for the voiceless people of color in our County & surrounding areas,” according to the group’s Facebook page.
The group participated in protests in Bluffton following the death of Floyd.
Wheeler said the group urged attendees of the first protest on May 31 to email Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka and the police department about the #8CANTWAIT campaign.
A few days later, on June 3, Wheeler and two other organizers had a meeting with Sulka, Chapmond, Town Manager Marc Orlando, Babkiewicz and Chandler.
“They said they were getting a lot of emails. That’s when they checked what #8CANTWAIT was,” said Wheeler.
Bluffton Police adopted the policy on intervention and, at the meeting, the organizers compared the rest of #8CANTWAIT with Bluffton police policy.
After adding “duty to intervene,” the Bluffton department currently has policies matching seven of the campaign’s eight proposals, according to Babkiewicz.
They include banning chokeholds, requiring de-escalation, exhausting all alternatives before shooting, banning shooting at moving vehicles, requiring use of force continuum, and having comprehensive reporting, according to the campaign website.
The only recommendation not added by Bluffton would require officers to give a warning before they fire their weapon.
Bluffton police did not sign on to that change because the department believes it would put an officer’s life at risk, said Babkiewicz.
Though the push for #8CANTWAIT was relatively successful, Wheeler said the group brought other proposals to the meeting that were not met with the same enthusiasm.
As to the relative impact of Floyd’s death on the Bluffton department, Chandler said the department needs to stay the course set by Chapmond.
“I don’t think it’s going to influence that much. We’re doing what I think we need to be doing. We have met with some of the event organizers,” said Chandler. “We’ve checked all the boxes.”
Wheeler said he knows Bluffton’s department is superior to other departments, but he said he doesn’t want it to stop improving.
“They always talk about how good their department is, but we’re not concerned with how good their department is,” said Wheeler. “We want them to get better.”
A department in flux
The chief who helped implement the department rule change will not be around to see it through.
The Bluffton department, which has more than 50 officers, will be on its fourth chief since 2017 after the departure of Chapmond on June 19.
Chandler was tapped to take over. He served as interim chief before Chapmond was hired.
While Chapmond had the discussions to put “duty to intervene” into writing, Chandler will oversee implementation.
He said Bluffton officers were already following this procedure as a tacit rule.
“I don’t really see any immediate effect. Police are there to enforce the law. If an officer sees another officer doing something that is against the law, they need to step in,” said Chandler. “Having it in writing is not going to necessarily change how we operate.”
Chapmond was the architect for the rule change and other shifts in the department, such as overhauling Bluffton’s past lax hiring policy and bringing more stability through “community policing.”
“Our No. 1 goal is trust and legitimacy in the community because if you can’t have that, you can’t police,” Chapmond said in a June 19 exit interview with the Island Packet. “We work on building that trust and legitimacy every day.”
The former chief’s return to Arkansas was a major blow to the department, according to Chandler, but the acting chief said he is ready to “take the mantle of where he left off.”
The Bluffton Police Department has weathered controversy from the two chiefs prior to Chapmond - one leaving amid questions of extensive paid time off and the other leaving after issues involving hiring officers who were previously fired for misconduct in other departments.
Orlando said applications are coming in for the vacant chief position, and he said the town has “a significant number of great resumes.”
He said no interviews have yet been conducted but that a first round list is being compiled.
Orlando said his priority is looking for a candidate who would maintain the culture put in by Chapmond rather than hiring a reformer.
“The next chief has to be able to execute the policies implemented,” he said.
“In terms of philosophy,” said Orlando, “my priority as a town manager for a chief is community policing.”
