MERIDIAN, Idaho — In 2019, Meridian police officers drew and pointed their guns 71 times. In 2017, they did so 84 times. Yet in 2018, officers pointed their guns 29 times and, as of June of this year, had done so 10 times.
That’s according to data the department tracks about how its officers use force. Not all police departments track how often their officers draw and point their guns, even without firing them — the Boise Police Department doesn’t, for instance.
Use of force data is not uniform across law enforcement organizations. Organizations are largely left to collect whatever data they see fit, and refer to techniques and uses of force in whatever terms they prefer, which makes comparing data between organizations difficult. In response to an Idaho Press records request, the Meridian Police Department provided data about uses of force, which included a line item titled “firearm pointed.” Stephany Galbreaith, spokeswoman for the Meridian Police Department, confirmed that if an officer points their gun at a person, the officer’s supervisor files a report, which is how those numbers are tracked.
“The supervisor does a use of force reporting form discussing the use of force,” Meridian Deputy Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea said. “We evaluate: Was the force objectively reasonable? Was the force effective in gaining compliance? Those types of things.”
Basterrechea said if officers pull over a vehicle and the occupant has a warrant for a violent crime or a history of violence, officers will point their guns.
“So our officers, rather than just walk up onto a car and get themselves shot, will tactically position their patrol vehicles,” Basterrechea said. “They’ll have a cover team that points the firearm at the occupants. We will order the occupants out of the car and safely take them into custody.”
The Ada County Sheriff’s Office also tracks how often its deputies point guns, but it refers to those incidents as an instance of a “weapon displayed.” According to Chris Saunders, of the manager of the Ada County Center for Data Analytics and Intelligence, that categorization refers to instances when officers draw and point — but don’t discharge — guns.
According to data posted to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office’s website, in 2018, deputies displayed a weapon 12 times, in 2019 18 times, and, so far in 2020, they have done so eight times.
The Idaho Press analyzed similar data for the police department Yakima, Washington, another city in the region that with a population of 94,000 is close in size to Meridian.
Randy Beehles, the city’s communication and public affairs director, told the Idaho Press he wasn’t able to provide exact numbers, but said, according to data the police department gave him, in 2018 Yakima officers pointed their guns between 45 and 50 times, compared to Meridian’s 29. In 2019, they did so roughly 25 times, compared to Meridian’s 71, and, as of mid-August, had done so four times in 2020.
The comparison with Yakima is noteworthy given Yakima’s reputation as a high crime area. Yakima saw 16 homicides in 2018, according to the Yakima Herald, while Meridian saw just two that same year. Yakima’s 2018 murder total was nearly half of Idaho’s total that year — 33.
The Herald reported that Yakima police recorded 421 cases of violent crime in 2018. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program states “violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.” In 2018, Meridian’s total for violent crimes was 82. In 2017, the year Meridian officers drew their weapons 84 times, the department reported 96 violent crimes. That same year the Yakima Police Department investigated 593 violent crimes, the Herald reported.
Stephany Galbreaith, spokeswoman for the Meridian Police Department, said the department’s crime analysis unit wasn’t able to find a reason for the discrepancies in the number of times Meridian police officers point guns.
In a phone interview, Basterrechea pointed to population growth and a rising crime rate in Meridian in recent years. He said when an officer points a gun at someone, the officer’s supervisor then fills out the necessary paperwork to track it.
“If Meridian’s numbers look high, maybe they’re really careful at counting it and the comparison cities might be really sloppily counting it,” Bill King, a criminal justice professor at Boise State University, speculated.
Hypothetically, King pointed out, even if a police department requires its police officers to fill out a form every time a gun is pointed, individual officers might not do so. The process of filling out paperwork can sometimes act as a deterrent, meaning an officer might be less likely to draw a gun if they feel they have to report it later. This logic cuts both ways though — if the individual officer who drew the gun doesn’t have to fill out the paperwork directly, that deterrent effect might not be in place.
Additionally, King said there’s a difference between an officer drawing their gun and keeping it low, and an officer drawing their gun and actually pointing it at someone — or “muzzling” them. The Ada County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Meridian and Yakima police departments, clarified to the Idaho Press that the numbers they track only include instances of an officer muzzling someone.
King lauded the department for tracking the data and releasing it in a request for public records. Many police departments don’t track the number of times their officers point guns — and even if they do, they might try to avoid releasing it, he said.
“I don’t imagine a lot of agencies are going to count the number of times officers draw their weapons,” he said.
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