RICHMOND (BCN) — Richmond police are re-training officers and seeking to purchase new equipment such as new ballistic shields and potentially a drone or a rescue vehicle in response to the recent assassinations of police officers in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, according to interim police Chief Allwyn Brown.
“We’ve been running some patrols with officers riding two per patrol car, and we’ve put on some training and practice scenarios on how to best react to ambush situations to raise officer tactical and situational awareness,” Brown wrote in a letter to Richmond city administrator Bill Lindsay, Mayor Tom Butt and members of the City Council.
Five Dallas police officers were killed and seven others were wounded when they were ambushed just as a protest against recent shootings by police officers in Baton Rouge and Minnesota was winding down on July 7. Weeks later, three Baton Rouge officers were killed in another ambush.
The controversy over shootings by law enforcement officers coupled with the brutal attacks against police in recent weeks and months have further strained already tense relationships between police and their communities. In Oakland, a police sergeant was fired on but not injured on July 23, just days after the Baton Rouge shooting.
Richmond — under former police Chief Chris Magnus, who left the department for Tuscon, Arizona, last year — became a model for community policing and crime reduction, a legacy that Brown has said he hopes to continue. Magnus himself drew headlines for standing with a “Black Lives Matter” sign at a protest in 2014.
“The truth is that American policing has more bad history than good, especially in communities of color,” Brown wrote. “We’ve made progress over the past decade on improving police and community relationships in Richmond, in part by using a mix of strategies and technology enablers built on a foundation of purposeful engagement and empowerment at the neighborhood level.”
But the assassinations of officers, Brown said, “is every working cop’s worst nightmare.”
In addition to the new training and practicing for ambush scenarios, Brown said officers will be further trained in the use of long guns that the department has in inventory but haven’t yet been assigned and issued.
He said the department is seeking new equipment, such as ballistic blankets and portable ballistic shields that could be useful in ambush or downed officer scenario, and is considering other gear like drones or a rescue vehicle.