SPOKANE — The Pasco Police Department should take steps to ensure all officers speak some Spanish, improve the training of officers to deal with mentally ill people, and hire more Spanish-speaking officers in the wake of last year’s shooting of a man with a history of mental illness that sparked protests in the city, a training group recommended.
The recommendations were released Monday by the Police Executive Research Forum, which was asked by the U.S. Department of Justice to study the shooting in the central Washington city.
The report recommended that the police department fully embrace the concept of community policing, provide more opportunities for officers to learn Spanish, attract more Spanish-speaking officers and provide officers with an understanding of cultural diversity and the role of implicit bias in policing. “While the guidance in this report is specific to Pasco, much of it can also be applied to police agencies across the nation that are facing challenges similar to Pasco’s,” the report said.
Antonio Zambrano-Montes, an orchard worker, was shot and killed as he threw rocks at police at a busy downtown intersection in February 2015. His death sparked weeks of peaceful protests in the city of more than 60,000 residents that is majority-Hispanic but has a police force with relatively few minorities.
In June, federal prosecutors announced they would not file charges against the three police officers who killed Zambrano-Montes. U.S. Attorney Michael Ormsby said there was insufficient evidence that the officers violated the civil rights of Zambrano-Montes when they fired 17 bullets at him on Feb. 10, 2015.
An autopsy showed he had methamphetamine in his system. He had a history of mental illness and interactions with police.
Cellphone video of the shooting went viral and led to weeks of peaceful protests in the city along the Columbia River.
Prosecutors had cleared officers Adrian Alaniz, Ryan Flanagan and Adam Wright in the shooting.
The parents of Zambrano-Montes have filed a lawsuit in federal court contending the officers used excessive force. That case is scheduled for trial next May. Several other lawsuits have also been filed.
Officers Wright and Alaniz have returned to work. Flanagan has since left the department.
After the shooting, the Justice Department asked the Police Executive Research Forum to provide training and technical assistance to Pasco police.
The group has already conducted training for Pasco police, including a program to focus on building relationships between police and community members. The police department was also urged to develop a social media presence in both English and Spanish.
