Rochester Police say they’re investigating an incident that resulted in a 15-second viral video of 5 officers taking down a man in the middle of Main Street. RPD’s initial findings are that the officers’ actions were in line with their training.
Rochester Police Chief Mike Ciminelli says every use of force by an officer is reviewed and this case is still being looked at.
According to the department’s initial analysis, the man subdued by police on Tuesday behaved in a violent and threatening manner.
Police used a Taser and struck the man with a baton to bring him under control.
Chief Ciminelli says the short video on social media doesn’t tell the whole story.
“This person did have a mental health issue. And in fact, even though you’ve got a sense from sergeant McPherson of part of the violence and how he attacked the officers, the officers didn’t even file criminal charges. They assessed it as a mental health situation and took him to a hospital and did not charge him,” says Ciminelli
The chief says all officers are giving some training on dealing with mentally ill people, but the specialized Emotionally Disturbed Persons Response Team was not dispatched to the scene in this case.
Reverend Lewis Stewart, a local civil rights activist who heads the United Christian Leadership Ministry, says he wants to meet with the police chief to discuss the incident.
“I think what we saw is the fact that, number one, police need more training in this issue. Number two, that they need to be able to screen their calls from the outset in terms of whether they need a professional there to really intervene in that particularly situation, in that particular conflict, and that's what needed to have happened,” says Stewart.
In a press conference the chief said the RPD needs to take a hard look at ways police can improve their training on interactions with mentally ill people.
