‘Just not appropriate’: KCPD used video of George Floyd’s death in training
Video showing how convicted murderer and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd has been played, on repeat, for nearly a year all over the world, and apparently was used in training for Kansas City Police Department officers.
Kansas City police put the video on the department’s internal intranet platform for officers to review in their use-of-restraint training. The video, which many have seen, shows Chauvin with his knee pressed on Floyd’s neck, causing Floyd’s death.
Police said Friday they have stopped using it. But why was it ever used?
Even using it to show what not to do shows no judgment or sensitivity or leadership.
And if you have to show a video of a police officer murdering a man over the course of nine minutes and 30 seconds as an instructional tool, aren’t you implying that your officers need to be reminded not to show such callous disregard for members of the community?
“It’s extremely disturbing,” said Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, who learned during Thursday’s council meeting that police were using the video for training.
“It’s sickening. We can’t memorialize this video in this way,” said Robinson, who immediately introduced a resolution calling on police to stop using the video. The council votes on the resolution next week.
Of course, the council can only make recommendations to KCPD. It has no power over how it operates, since the city police department is governed by a state-appointed board of commissioners.
Robinson told The Star Editorial Board that when she asked on Thursday about the video, she was told by Acting Deputy Chief Gregory Dull that he was not aware the video was being used.
But Mayor Quinton Lucas, who sits on the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, cut in and confirmed that indeed it was used. That he had seen a copy of it. And that the Rev. Mark Tolbert, who also sits on the Board of Commissioners but did not immediately respond to calls from The Star Friday, spoke with KCPD Chief Rick Smith about it last summer and asked that the department take the video down.
“I don’t know why you would keep it up there,” Lucas said. “It should never have been put up there in the first place. Using video showing a man’s death as a training video is just not appropriate. I’m going to be completely honest: To not know the video was being used is a screwup. But to know and allow it to stay up is a significant problem.”
Now that the video has done its work in court — key to convicting Chauvin of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter — it only remains as a symbol of police brutality against Black people in this country.
And to subject officers in training, particularly those of color, to hearing Floyd beg for his life, to watching his face pressed into the asphalt as he’s tortured to death under Chauvin’s knee, is sadistic.
A person would have to be completely out of touch not to know how offensive and disrespectful this is to the Black and brown members of his police force, right? To anyone with any humanity, actually. What KCPD should do is impose a zero-tolerance policy for officers who use excessive force.
Chief Smith, this is just another addition to the long list of reasons the minority community has no faith or trust in you or your department. And why they, city officials and The Star have repeatedly called for your resignation.