Here & Now

Green Bay Police Receiving Use of Force Refresher

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is the situation on the ground with practicing cops, those still responding and engaging and making decisions? For that we go to Green Bay and check in there with the Chief of Police Andrew Smith. And, chief, thank you so much for being here.

Andrew Smith:

You’re welcome. Glad to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

So I have read that you intend a refresher course for your officers in the use of force in the wake of what happened in Minneapolis. How important do you believe that kind of regular training is for your officers?

Andrew Smith:

I think it’s critical. I think our officers need to know what their job is. They need to know what the rules are for their job. We already started that. We met with all of our supervisors just last week and we all sat down, went over the Minnesota incident. We had our use of force trainers there and the expectation is every officer will receive a refresher on what happened in Minneapolis, what our policies say and what our expectations are for our officers.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do your officers use methods like holding handcuffed suspects down on their necks?

Andrew Smith:

No. That’s specifically prohibited by our policy. We do not do that.

Frederica Freyberg:

And so if you had a refresher on use of force, what were the most cogent take-aways from that for your officers?

Andrew Smith:

Well, we gave them kind of a little bit of an overview about why we’re able to use force, under what situations force is appropriate. But also we talked about the officer override. If you see another officer using force that’s unauthorized or misapplying force, we believe it’s the responsibility of those officers to stop that from happening. And that was reiterated along with the basic rules of you don’t put your knee on someone’s neck. You don’t put them down to the ground and hold them down pinned like that. If someone’s gasping for air or calling for help, you take that as a serious incident and needs to be acted on.

Frederica Freyberg:

You say law enforcement has a long way to go in terms of accountability. How so?

Andrew Smith:

Well, I think it’s a tough job out there, and there’s a lot of great officers doing great work every day. But I think we all come across the bad apple that you hear about. We come across officers who have a long history of getting in trouble. And I think it’s awful tough to fire someone, quite frankly, that needs to be fired here in Wisconsin. So I think it’s incumbent upon the chiefs of police to make sure they are holding their officers accountable at all levels. I think the chief needs to be held accountable too. We have a civilian police and fire commission in Green Bay that holds me accountable. I think across the board and across the country, accountability for officers is lacking and it’s really, really tough to fire a bad officer.

Frederica Freyberg:

You marched with protesters in your city last weekend. What was that like?

Andrew Smith:

Well, it’s not the first time I’ve marched with protesters. Coming from Los Angeles, I’ve done that many times. But I was quite happy to be invited into the protest when they asked me to march with them. And of course I did. And what really I wanted to do was have the opportunity to listen to people, to hear what they say, to hear what they’re concerned about. I understand their anger and I understand their frustration, but I really wanted to hear it from the people that were marching. What’s on your mind? What can we do better as a police department here in Green Bay?

Frederica Freyberg:

Before that you commented about how George Floyd died, saying it sickened you and it was one of the most horrible things you had ever seen. While reading your statement about how you marched with the protesters, we also came upon an article, and it gives me no pleasure to raise this, about a family whose loved one was killed by police bullets in your city and they called you out for your hypocrisy, saying, “we’re outraged and deeply offended that you would use this time of tragedy to make those statements, saying that your department is not at fault,” they said, “for the same unjust actions that have occurred to George Floyd’s family.” What is your comment on that?

Andrew Smith:

Well, first of all, there’s a lawsuit pending, so I can’t speak about any of the specifics of that case. But these were two completely different cases. This one has already been reviewed. The one in Green Bay has already been reviewed by the District Attorney’s office, who declined to press any charges, of course. So they are two very different cases. I understand that family is very upset. But, again, there’s a lawsuit pending. I really can’t talk about any specifics of that.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Well, chief, we really appreciate you joining us and we wish you and your city well. Thank you so much.

Andrew Smith:

Great. Thank you.