Tumwater police report 25 use-of-force incidents in 2023

Tumwater Police Department recorded 25 incidents of police officers using force in 2023, Lieutenant Carlos Quiles reported to the Tumwater Public Health and Safety Committee on Tuesday, May 14.

Quiles noted there were 27,000 police-public contacts made last year, which meant that the documented use of force incidents comprise less than one-tenth of one percent of police contacts. The lieutenant clarified that these contacts were either incidents that the public called the police or officers proactively engaged with the public.

Last year’s figure is higher than the 15 recorded in 2022 and 13 in 2021, but lower than 40 from 2020.

In those 25 incidents, seven people involved were Olympia residents; six were Tumwater residents. Four people were transient individuals; eight were residents from outside Thurston County.

As a result of these incidents, eight subjects were injured, but Quiles noted that the nature of the injuries were mostly just scrapes and bruises.

Police Chief Jon Weiks added that one injury was from the bite of a police dog.

From the police department’s side, two officers were injured, including one who underwent surgery.

Most incidents occurred while responding to two types of calls. Ten uses of force incidents happened while responding to a property crime or trespassing, while eight were made while responding to a call about a disturbance or suspicious circumstance.

Nineteen of those incidents happened as police officers were responding to a dispatch call, while five were made while the department was assisting other agencies. One incident also happened due to the proactive actions of an officer.

While 23 incidents happened with two or more officers responding to the case, only one officer had to use force in the majority of the cases.

Ten incidents involved one officer using force, six incidents involved two officers using force, another six incidents involved three officers using force, while three cases involved four or more officers using force.

Quiles noted that the more officers they have in a scene, the less likely they are to resort to higher levels of force as people tend to be more compliant where there are more officers.

The police department’s policy defines the use of force as “any act reasonably likely to cause physical pain or injury or any other act exerted upon a person’s body to compel, control, constrain, or restrain the person’s movement.”

In those 25 cases, six occurred with the use of a weapon, while the rest only involved the use of physical force only.

Use of force does not include pat-downs, incidental touching, verbal commands, or a person complying with being handcuffed, according to police policy.

In terms of gender, 14 men and eight women were involved in these incidents. These numbers did not include people who didn’t identify their gender.

In terms of race, 17 were Caucasian, three were African American, and one was Hispanic. The remainder either didn’t want to identify their race or had multiple races.

Quiles said that in collecting these data, incidents go through three levels of review. Incidents are initially evaluated by the patrol sergeant, then the patrol lieutenant, before being verified by the police commander. The police records are then sent to an independent company for analysis and data categorization.