MOULTRIE, Ga. — A police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minn., allegedly mistook her firearm for a stun gun, leading to the shooting death of a motorist who’d been pulled over. It raises the question: Could it happen here?

In the body camera footage released Monday by the Brooklyn Center Police Department, Officer Kim Potter is heard shouting, “I’ll tase you! I’ll tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!,” before apparently mistaking her firearm for her Taser and fatally shooting Daunte Wright.

Moultrie and Colquitt County officers have “immense amounts of training” to help avoid deadly mistakes, according to Lt. Ronald Jordan, who handles interdepartmental training at the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office.

The training of new officers is handled by the Georgia Public Safety Training Course. After graduating the course, officers are put through “on-the-job training,” according to Jordan. 

“Georgia state law requires that officers complete a minimum of 20 hours of training on various topics every year. They also have to requalify with their firearm at least once a year and undergo a de-escalation course, a use of force class and a community oriented policing class,” Jordan said. 

These state mandated courses make up around five of their 20 hours, he said.

The Moultrie Police Department also has extensive training for its officers. According to MPD Deputy Chief Michael Cox just to be accepted onto the force, applicants must pass a physical test, a background investigation, an interview with a board made up of lieutenants and other higher ranks, an interview with the chief of police, a polygraph conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and a multitude of other tests and training.

Even through all this training and preparations, it is up to the officer to decide what force is necessary. In what Jordan described as the “backbone” of force justification, Graham v. Connor was a case that was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989.

“The Supreme Court in that case wouldn’t put it into a box when a police officer could legally use force but what they would say is that they can use force that they think is ‘reasonable.’ They came out and said, ‘We can’t tell you what reasonable is,’ but the way they determine if something is reasonable is ‘how would a reasonable police officer act in that circumstance,’’’ said Jordan.

The idea behind the decision is to look at a situation that is “tense or uncertain” and decide what would another officer with similar training and experience have done in that situation. 

There are several factors that determine when a force is deemed “reasonable.” Jordan stated these are what is known as the Graham Factors. These include: the severity of the crime, whether the suspect is an immediate danger to the safety of the officer or others, whether they are actively resisting arrest or are actively evading arrest.

“Other court cases since then include some other factors such as the known history of the suspect known at the time the force was used,” said Jordan. 

“This all being said, it is safe to say that there are no cut and dry ways to determine what force is necessary. Nobody is going to judge you for tasing someone with a knife but what about the guy who balls his fists up and starts charging you, can you use it then?”

One of the biggest factors that Jordan brought up when talking about preparedness, is how an officer will react to an escalating situation. Both the CCSO and MPD are training in de-escalation procedures. These include trying to calm suspects that are agitated or scared.

These practices include what Sheriff’s Office Investigator Austin Cannon described as “verbal judo.”

“You want to lengthen the amount of talking,” Cannon said. “You need to make sure that the officer, suspect and others are safe. You also need to make sure that the environment is safe and you need to stretch out the time where force may be required for as long as possible.” 

“Trying to get them to cooperate is the most important part,” said Sheriff’s Officer Investigator Justin Searcy. “We are trained to use appropriate responses regarding the situation. Using force without even drawing a weapon is the first option but if de-escalation doesn’t work, we have to move to more intimidating means. For example, I mostly deploy my Taser as a scare tactic and more often than not they comply.”

According to Jordan the CCSO deploys their Tasers “on an average of two times per month,” and according to Cox the MPD has had four uses of force so far in 2021, one of which involves a Taser. 

Jordan says he was “disgusted” by the acts of Potter but maintains that accidents do occur on the job.

“Unfortunately when we make mistakes, people die,” he said. “We are human too and just like everybody we can make mistakes. 

“We are held to higher standards, that’s part of what we signed up for,” he said. “When a cop sees those kinds of things in the news we hate it more than most people watching it.”

Both MPD and CCSO personnel are taught to “cross-draw” their Taser. The main firearm is placed on their dominant side and the Taser is placed on their nondominant side to easily avoid the confusion of mistaking the two weapons. 

“What it boils down to is how are these cops going to react in situations where they are tested? Where things are getting out of control?” Jordan asked. “The same people who ten years ago were becoming cops, aren’t becoming cops anymore. It started about ten years ago and it’s only been exacerbated by the media. The quality of applicants is diminishing across the country. So you can train somebody as much you like but they need to have the fortitude to apply the training and make the right call in that moment.”