Saturday's Charleston shooting, in which a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man, comes on the heels of other deaths involving officers in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City and Cleveland, and hits even closer to home for Aiken County.
On Tuesday, the same day murder charges were levied against North Charleston officer Michael Slager, 33, the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division charged former North Augusta Public Safety officer Justin Craven with discharging a firearm into a vehicle while occupied, a felony.
Investigators said Craven "unlawfully" discharged his firearm into the car driven by 68-year-old Earnest Satterwhite after a police chase, killing Satterwhite.
The latest incident rekindles questions posed by the other cases of police officers using lethal force, particularly the appropriate use of force by an officer and the need for body cameras in law enforcement.
'A step above'
Lt. Karl Odenthal, of the Aiken Department of Public Safety, said officers have several "less lethal" options available to overcome resistance by a suspect, including soft, empty-hand techniques, a straight baton, pepper spray and a stun gun.
Officers begin their training in defensive tactics at the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy. In addition to training on firearms twice a year, officers also have a yearly review of the use of force policy, which includes when it's appropriate to shoot, Odenthal said.
Each agency develops its own use-of-force policy based on state law, but neither the laws nor the policies are cut and dry, Odenthal said.
"A smaller officer going against a larger suspect might have to deploy a different tactic than if they're going against someone of equal size and strength," he said. "Generally, whatever they (the suspect) have, you have to take a step above, is what the academy's always taught. If they have a knife, that's when you go to the gun."
Ability, opportunity, jeopardy
Sgt. Jason Feemster said the Aiken County Sheriff's Office has the same policy on going a step above whatever kind of force a suspect is using, and that they also review the policy each time they conduct training.
"We're taught ability, opportunity and jeopardy," he said. "Is there an ability for a person to cause harm to another person or ourselves? Do they also have the opportunity to take that action? And is there human life in jeopardy?"
Aiken Public Safety has had some instances when force was used, but a majority of them were in line with the department's policy, Odenthal said. He recalled a mentally ill suspect who charged an officer with a knife; even though officers would have been justified in shooting and killing him, they used a stun gun instead and were able to handcuff him without injury.
Review
The policies at Aiken Public Safety and the Sheriff's Office also lay out ensuring medical aid to a suspect who is injured during a police encounter.
"Aid will be rendered as soon as possible if there's been a use of force," Feemster said.
The Sheriff's Office investigates any case in which an officer uses force, Feemster said, which even includes soft empty-hand techniques - defined as using bodily force to gain control of a situation. The incident, and the force applied during it, are reviewed and critiqued first by the office's training division, captain division and chief deputy, in that order.
Aiken Public Safety also documents and reviews each use of force and compiles a report at the end of each year, per requirements of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
"It's mainly for us to look at our training issues," Odenthal said. "If all of a sudden we have a spike in use of pepper spray, what changed? Is it a training issue for us because we have some newer officers? Are we just coming out the wrong way in our approach? Or are we just dealing with a more violent population?"
Body cameras
The North Charleston Police Department has ordered body cameras for all its officers since the shooting.
The North Augusta Department of Public Safety and the Williston Police Department already have purchased cameras for their forces.
Aiken Public Safety began looking into purchasing body cameras in 2013, and is testing different models and brands. Odenthal said they keep encountering technical issues, specifically compatibility of the cameras with the computers at headquarters.
"It might have been a good camera system, but if it's not working with what we have, we don't need that one," Odenthal said.
The cameras, which are typically fixed to an officer's uniform, record activity from an officer's perspective when activated, and cost anywhere from $100 to $2,000 per unit. Odenthal said Public Safety has requested funding from the City Council for about half of the cameras the department wishes to purchase. The agency is looking to outfit about 60 patrol officers with the devices.
Feemster said the Sheriff's Office also is in the testing phase.
Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt has put body cameras into his 2015-16 budget request, which he will present to the County Council next week.
Teddy Kulmala covers the crime beat for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since August 2012. He is a native of Williston and majored in communication studies at Clemson University.