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October 25, 2011 Sheriff Jerry L. Demings Orange County Sheriff’s Office 2500 West Colonial Drive Orlando, Florida 32804 Dear Sheriff Demings, On August 11, 2011, you charged your citizens’ a dvisory committee with reviewing the Orange County Sheriff's Office’s (OCSO) policy on the use of force, specifically, your employees shooting their firearms into or at moving vehicles. You asked th at the committee submit recomm endations that could be considered to better improve how the Orange C ounty Sheriff's Office handled the subject matter. The following is a brief summary of the process the committee used to identify its recommendations: The committee met four (4) times. We had several presentations, and discussions with OCSO staff from their Legal Section, Professional Standards Sectio n, and the Training Section. The committee also reviewed the following documents:  Five (5) cases involving the OCSO’s latest in cidents where employees had discharged their firearms into or at a moving vehicle.  Florida State Statute 776.06 regarding “deadly for ce” from the Justifiable Use of Force chapter (776) of the Florida State Statutes.  OCSO’s annual Use of Force report generate d from the agency’s Training Section.  Six (6) other law enforcement agency’s policies within the state of Florida: 1. City of Orlando Police Department 2. Broward County Sheriff’s Office 3. Miami-Dade Police Department 4. Florida Highway Patrol 5. Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office 6. Fort Lauderdale Police Department  International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) model policy regard ing use of force. Through these presentations, discussions, and several hours worth of independent study of the many materials and cases we received during this review , the Sheriff’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee would like to encourage you to continue to utilize the Early Identification System (EIS), as well as monitor local and national trends in tactics, trai ning and retraining where necessary to ensure the continued proficiency of agency members. The Sheriff’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee vo ted unanimously to recommend the following be considered as additions to your agency policies. Un less otherwise stated, the lo cation of where to insert these recommendations will be left up to your staff: Recommendation number 1: When determining what level of force to use, deputies shall consider the risk to the public, including but not limited to, whether the deputy’s use of force create s a substantial risk to the safety of the public, exceeding the danger to deputies or the public created by allowing the suspect to remain at large. Recommendation number 2: When tactically safe, deputies shall use reasonable m eans to apprehend a suspect, prior to their entry into a motor vehicle or other conveyance. Recommendation number 3: Deadly force may be justified when a suspect rams, attempts to ram or uses a vehicle to engage in conduct that poses an imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm to th e deputy or others, however, mere contact between a suspect’s vehicle and a deputy’s ve hicle shall not be sufficient cause for the use of deadly force. Recommendation number 4: (Our recommendation is that this could be added to the portion of the policy telling employees when they may discharge their firearms) When the deputy is able to indepe ndently, due to the totality of available information as well as experience based knowledge and training, articulate that the use of force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to themselves or others. Recommendation number 5: (Our recommendation is that this could be added to the portion of the policy addressing that employees are not authorized to: Discharge their weapons at or into a vehicle unless it is absolu tely necessary to do so to protect against an imminent danger “of death or serious bodily harm to the deputy or others.” (The unquoted part is existing language. The quoted part is the new recommended language.) Recommendation number 6: Shooting at or into a moving motor vehicle can be ineffective and shoul d only be considered as a last resort to protect the deputy or another from an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury. Recommendation number 7: (Our recommendation is that this be added to the pre-printed “Special Detail Operation Plan” on the Portal) Have the goal(s) and objective( s) of this special detail operational pl an considered the impact of potential danger to the public? Special thanks to Captain Ted Br own, Ms. Brenda Medel, and Ms. Do rothy Burk for their tremendous support and guidance throughout the process. They were an invaluable asset. The Sheriff’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee thanks you for the opportunity to serve and provide these recommendations to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Respectfully Submitted, Walter Hawkins, Chairman OCSO Sheriff's Citizens’ Advisory Committee Cc: committee members Captain Ted Brown