In September 2008, William “Dub” Lawrence watched helplessly as a Davis County, Utah, SWAT team shot and killed his son-in-law
after the man had a mental breakdown. To Lawrence, the police team
acted rashly. He thought they needlessly escalated the situation, were
too quick to opt for force, and were too quick to move on to lethal
force. It’s hard to fathom what it must be like to see a family member
gunned down, but for Lawrence, the incident was particularly crushing
because back in the 1970s, he was elected sheriff of Davis County. And
he started the SWAT team that he later witnessed killing his son-in-law.
Today, Lawrence is part of a police reform movement in Utah
that has posted some surprising legislative victories. Most notably,
Utah is now the only state in the country with a SWAT transparency bill
— police agencies with SWAT teams must report how often they use the
units, for what purpose, what tactics were used, what was found, and
other information about these raids. (Maryland passed a similar law in
2011, but the legislature allowed it to expire this year.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/10/13/ex-sheriff-speaks-out-on-police-shootings-training-militarization/
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