Kansas City police asked not to fire at moving vehicles, but policy grants exceptions
Kansas City police officers generally should not shoot at a moving vehicle but are given the latitude to do so if they are in split-second, life-threatening situations, according to a police spokesman.
An officer fired shots at a vehicle late Monday after it allegedly was speeding and drove toward the officer’s patrol car. No injuries were reported in the shooting near U.S. 40 and Interstate 435.
“The department’s firearms policy addressing that, generally officers should not fire into moving vehicles,” said Sgt. Jacob Becchina, a police spokesman. “But it does relieve latitude, obviously for life-threatening situations. Each situation is its own and to be taken in conjunction with the totality of circumstances.”
An officer on patrol near East 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard reported shortly before 11 p.m. that a vehicle was speeding eastbound on 31st Street.
A second officer near U.S. 40 and I-435 noticed the vehicle still speeding eastbound. That officer shot at the vehicle after its driver allegedly drove toward the officer’s patrol car, police said. The vehicle then sped away from the shooting.
Becchina said investigators have not determined whether anyone was struck by the officer’s gunfire. They also did not have a complete description of the vehicle or a description of the driver.
The department’s violent crimes unit is investigating the shooting. They will determine how fast the vehicle was traveling when the officer opened fire. The traffic unit will likely reconstruct the crime scene.
Police have not said exactly where the officers were standing when the vehicle sped towards them. He wasn’t aware if the patrol officers had time or enough space to deploy a tire deflation device to force the vehicle to stop.
“That’s why we bring all those investigators into it to get a really accurate picture of them,” Becchina said. “So that we are able to say upon completion of that, we are able to answer all of those questions. We have the same questions you guys do at this point in time.”
In October, a federal judge approved a $100,000 settlement for a toddler who was shot in the foot six years ago by an on-duty officer who fired his service weapon into a car that eluding officers.
That officer fired nine rounds, striking a 1-year-old girl, in August 2015.
The lawsuit alleged the officer acted outside of the police department’s policy at the time by firing at the car.
That policy was recently updated and allows officers to evaluate the “totality of the circumstances at that time, when using force,” Becchina said.
He said in a 1989 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court set the standard for police uses of force.
“And the use of force is objectively reasonable, given the totality of the circumstances at that time,” he said. “That’s why that verbiage is exactly the way it is in that policy to say that generally they shouldn’t. Although, it does have latitude.”
