Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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| Officials: No new details forthcoming |
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Friday, November 13, 2009
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Civil rights groups have scheduled a meeting with city officials and authorities to seek more information about the January death of a Martinsville teenager and the city’s policy on police use of Tasers.
The meeting will be held Tuesday in Martinsville, according to the Rev. William Avon Keen, state president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
City spokesman Scott Coleman said the meeting, scheduled from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, will be held in the city manager’s office and will not be open to the public.
Keen said members of the SCLC and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will ask city officials for an update on the Jan. 8 death of Derek Jones, who died after a Taser was used to subdue him.
However, city officials will not discuss the incident in which Jones died beyond what information already has been released to the public, Coleman said.
City Manager Clarence Monday said the meeting was scheduled because the civil rights groups asked to discuss ways to partner with the city on outreach opportunities.
Coleman said that would include things such as informing the public on how to handle encounters with law enforcement, such as if they were pulled over, to avoid a situation in which a Taser would be used.
Taser International, which makes Tasers used by the police department, on Oct. 12 advised police agencies across the nation not to aim Tasers at a suspect’s chest.
A memo from the company about the change stated the change “has less to do with safety and more to do with effective risk management for law enforcement agencies.”
Monday said city officials had to request a copy of that memo. He added that Martinsville Police Chief Mike Rogers has assigned an administrative team to review the advisory and outline any changes in the department’s policies on Taser use that might be needed.
Any changes, he said, will need to be coordinated with training organizations and possibly through the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).
Rogers has said the January incident did not prompt changes to his department’s current policy governing the use of Tasers.
The police department’s policies on Taser use are in accordance with state guidelines outlined in the Standards for Law Enforcement Officers, Rogers has said.
Both the NAACP and the SCLC have requested information pertaining to the Jones case in March, according to previous reports.
As of Thursday afternoon, “our organization has not” received the requested details, Keen said, although he acknowledged that some of the information may have been sent to Jones’ family.
Jones, 17, died in the Rives Road apartment he shared with his mother, Sharlene English. Autopsy results released nearly nine months later showed the Taser could not be excluded as a cause or a factor in Jones’ death.
The police officer who deployed the Taser was cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident.
Groups such as the NAACP and the SCLC have called for bans or moratoriums on Taser use pending further study of their safety. |
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