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RPD releases use-of-force training material to help citizens better understand

Posted at 6:41 PM, Jul 27, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-28 13:13:29-04

RICHMOND, Va. -- Marcus Peters' sister spoke heatedly to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and Police Chief Alfred Durham at a community meeting at Huguenot High School Thursday night.

At the meeting, Princess Blanding questioned why a Richmond Police officer used deadly force against her brother on Interstate 95 in May.

In body cam footage released by the police department, a naked and unarmed Peters appears to threaten the officer verbally and lunge at him.

“We have taxpayers that are paying for our police officers to receive crisis intervention training you all are paying for the police department to receive all of these trainings, but the only tactic that you use is deadly force? It is not acceptable,” said Blanding.

Less than 24 hours after Blanding's comments, the Richmond Police Department posted materials online that describe the department's Use-of-Force and Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training.

In a press release about the trainings, Chief Durham said he hopes the resource material will help citizens better understand what the training involves.

“One of the most important aspects of our training is teaching our officers what to do when faced with a situation where they may need to use force,” wrote Durham.

Richmond Police said Michael Nyantakyi, the officer involved in the Peters shooting, is CIT trained.

Melissa Hipolit is working on a CBS 6 Problem Solvers investigation about the number of officers and deputies in our region who are CIT trained.

Through our research, CBS 6 learned about 65 percent of RPD officers are CIT trained, but some departments have less than 15 percent of their officers and deputies CIT trained.

That CBS 6 Problem Solvers investigation airs Tuesday, July 31 on CBS 6 News at 11 p.m.

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