Emanuel and Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante also discussed changes in department policy on when officers may use physical or deadly force, with a focus on using “de-escalation tactics” to try to resolve potentially violent situations.
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Ramezan Sharif, a Revolutionary Guard spokesman, said his forces didn’t carry out any drills in the key Persian Gulf waterway. Iran test-fired missiles in October and November.
Embattled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a major overhaul of the USA city’s police force on Wednesday in the wake of fatal shootings which sparked mass protests.
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The mayor did not say how he would pay for doubling the number of police Tasers to 1,400, or the additional training.
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As protests in Chicago continue against gun violence and police shootings, the city has released emails about the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, the black teenager shot 16 times by a white police officer. He noted that on audio recordings of communications between dispatchers and officers on the scene, several are heard “frantically” asking for a Taser before the shooting.
Chicago police shoot more than 50 people a year, 74 percent of them black, with an average of 17 fatal shootings a year between 2007 and 2014, according to the Independent Police Review Authority, which examines complaints about the Chicago police and its use of force.
By next June, all city officers will have to carry tasers and will have to know how to use them properly.
Emanuel said Wednesday that shooting showed “we have a problem”.
In a rare apparent apology, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) admitted that Ms Jones was a victim who was “accidentally struck and tragically killed”.
Taser also in November won a contract with the London Metropolitan Police to outfit the British capital’s police officers with 22,000 Axon cameras. This incident has already gotten some media attention in the past few months, mostly from people calling for any video evidence to be released. Chicago officers shot a man named Ronald Johnson in the back on October 12, 2014.
In a weekend statement, Emanuel said he ordered Escalante and the city’s Independent Police Review Authority to review the department’s crisis-intervention team training. “That is what these new policies will help us do”, the mayor said.
Police will be given electronic stun guns called Tasers that can disable a suspect without having to use bullets.
The changes come amid an uproar over shootings by police, including one in which a white officer shot a black teenager 16 times.
Emanuel ended a vacation early this week to deal with fallout from the police shootings of a 55-year-old mother and a 19-year-old college student.
When asked if he considers the mentality of “shoot first, ask later” characteristic of Chicago police, the mayor refuted this notion.
Mental-health advocates tell the station that it has been pressuring the Emanuel administration for years to increase training, but there’s been no money for new training classes since last summer.
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The request to investigate the deaths of Quintonio LeGrier, 19 and Betty Jones, 55, comes five days after the shooting and amid growing concerns about law enforcement’s use of force.
