ASHEVILLE - In a first City Council appearance since public protests packed downtown streets and brought accusations of excessive police force, Police Chief David Zack issued a sweeping plan for overhauling the department and said officers had failed in the past to accurately report when they used force.
“We will expand our current definition of what constitutes use of force," Zack said, speaking to the full council for the first time since becoming chief Feb. 4. "Early in my arrival here at Asheville Police Department, within the first week, I determined that use of force was being underreported and the criteria of what constituted force needed to be expanded upon."
The revelation about uncounted use of force incidents stood out among many striking statements and proposals made by the chief and other city officials at the June 9 council meeting where members of the public called to "defund" local law enforcement.
"Fifty percent of the APD's budget should be invested in long term safety strategies, including supporting black startup businesses, eliminating the racial opportunity gap, Asheville City Schools and funding an all-civilian oversight committee with the power
to hold individually officers accountable," Asheville resident Rachel Armstrong said in a transcript of public voice mails left as input for the council.
What wasn't reported?
Zack did not elaborate on what incidents he believed were not being reported or why. On June 10 he agreed to talk to the Citizen Times, saying he wanted to expand on the issue but was in an "after action report" meeting on the protests and did not call or message back.
Use of force incidents include firearms, tear gas or pepper balls, batons, stun guns and physical force, according to APD's 2019 Professional Standards Report.
The publicly available report said there were 27 such incidents 2019, up from 21 in 2018.
There was an overall decline in the last seven years, starting with 2013 when there were 82. They dropped to the low of 21 in 2018 before rising again last year, the report said.
This year, the department has reported five uses of force through March. That was on track to be less than 2019. The protests will now add many more to tally.
But with the reported numbers now in doubt, some say they believe incidents that happened to them may not be part of the official count.
Councilwoman Sheneika Smith, one of two black council members, said she has had residents tell her they made complaints to the department about what they felt were improper uses of force and never knew how they were handled. Such internal police workings are protected by state privacy laws and rarely revealed, though criminal charges are public.
"I think it tells us a lot," Smith said of Zack's statement about the undercount. "I would be interested in overlaying that with the leadership we had at the time. It makes me want to investigate a little bit more about why things haven’t been reported."
Asheville police brutality incident
Zack spoke at the culmination of an emotional two weeks starting with the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police and ending with Asheville's downtown packed with protesters, the vast majority of whom demonstrated peacefully against police violence. Some, however, clashed with officers and destroyed property.
Asheville officials condemned Floyd's death, in which he cried out he couldn't breathe, likening it to the 2017 police beating, shocking and choking of black Asheville resident Johnnie Rush who survived but whose similar cries that he couldn't breathe have been heard by hundreds of thousands watching leaked body camera footage of his arrest after he was stopped for jaywalking.
Shortly after his arrival, Zack said in a Feb. 24 interview with the Citizen Times that officers knew that incident did great harm to public trust and was a "stain" on APD.
After the beating and before Zack's hiring, the department launched a series of reforms on how police use force, establishing a work group with community members and banning choke holds, shooting into moving vehicles and requiring attempts to de-escalate situations.
Protests bring more use of force questions
But the protests, which began in earnest May 31, brought more questions about police choices to use tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets against protesters who said they were being peaceful and were not warned before fired upon.
One protester, a black Asheville resident who gave only his first name, Zack, said he was hit with a tear gas canister in the back when he turned to run and three times by rubber bullets, saying they felt like being "hit with a baseball."
Another, Idris Salaam, who is also African American, said he was struck by a tear gas canister as he stood between protesters and police in an attempt to bring calm.
Members of the council's public safety committee have asked City Manager Debra Campbell to investigate APD's handing of the protests. The chief, meanwhile, said "law enforcement transparency engagement advisers" are beginning a review of what happened.
Use of force in 2020
Here is the reported uses of force by the Asheville Police Department for the first three months of 2020. (NOTE: The department's new chief, David Zack, has said the official numbers are an undercount, so some incidents might be missing. Police data gives beats and districts but not exact location.)
- Jan. 16, Downtown (north), physical force, active resistance, white male (within policy).
- Jan. 22, East Asheville (Oteen, Haw Creek area), taser deployment, active resistance, white male (within policy).
- Jan. 29, North Asheville (Montford, Five Points, UNC Asheville area), taser deployment, active resistance, white male (within policy).
- Jan. 31, East Asheville (Kenilworth, Oakley area), physical force, active resistance, white male (within policy).
- Feb. 11 South Asheville (Biltmore Village, Shiloh area), physical force, close hand strike(s), assaultive, aggressive resistance, white male (pending).
Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
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