An 11-year-old who was charged with theft and obstructing official business after an off-duty Cincinnati Police officer Tased her at a local Kroger will not face charges, officials say.
The incident happened Monday night (Aug. 6) at the Kennard Avenue Kroger. The girl was in a group of minors who had been reported for stealing snacks. Officer Kevin Brown approached the children and asked them to stop. The 11-year-old continued moving away from the officer, and Brown deployed his Taser. She was taken to Children’s Hospital Medical Center and then released into the custody of her parents to face court proceedings at a later date. The girl admitted to stealing soda, chips and candy.
An uproar on social media soon followed the incident, and yesterday, Mayor John Cranley asked Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters to drop charges against the girl.
“Tasing an 11-year old who posed no danger to the police is wrong,” Cranley said in a statement last night. “I’m sorry for the harm to her and her family. This evening I called and asked Prosecutor Deters to drop charges against the girl. I’m happy to report that he did and I thank for him doing so.”
Police are conducting an internal investigation into the use of the Taser.
Some activists want more, however. The Black United Front’s Iris Roley, a key proponent of Cincinnati’s 2001 Collaborative Agreement police reforms, wants a board that was established by that agreement and designed to investigate complaints against officers to be able to compel officers to testify in a timely manner. A county judge ruled earlier this year that the Citizens Complaint Authority may not interview police about a complaint when a criminal case is proceeding related to the incident in question. Roley points to the recent Tasing incident as a reason that’s a bad idea.
Meanwhile, some members of Cincinnati City Council have called for changes to police procedures around Taser use. Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman, for example, wants to see the use of Tasers on suspects younger than 12 prohibited.
Not everyone agrees that Brown was in the wrong, though. Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 69 President Dan Hils says the outcry over the Tasing is blown out of proportion.
“Remember food deserts?,” Hils wrote in a Facebook post yesterday. “When grocery stores close in the inner city they get criticized. When they try to reduce theft by hiring a security guard or a police detail this is what happens. Now some of our elected officials are getting the knee-jerk about this juvenile suspect and how she was apprehended. Oh please none of you every (sic) say anything about a food desert. Procedure allows use of a taser for suspects actively resisting lawful arrest from the ages of 7 to 70. What if the officer grabbed this suspect, she resists, they fall to the ground and she is injured? What would happen then? I can answer that; Kroger gets sued, the City gets sued and eventually Kroger’s in the city goes goodbye. Knee-jerk reactions like this hurt everyone involved. All uses of force by CPD are investigated. Allow this to be investigated.”
While a set of CPD guidelines on use of force do allow for an 11-year-old to be Tased, they also state that “an individual simply fleeing from an officer, absent additional justification, does not warrant the use of the TASER.”
This article appears in Aug 8-15, 2018.