photo: Ayesha Walker - Youth Radio/ BY-NC-SA

The firm hired to investigate BART police's behavior in the events leading up to the Oscar Grant shooting, has released its findings. The firm, Meyers Nave, concluded that BART police violated a number of protocols.

The Meyers Naves report states that the BART police manual had not been updated in many years. Despite a cover which says it was updated in January 2008, the policies in the manual had not been updated since the late 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s. The report also lists areas where BART protocols were ignored the day Grant was shot:

Responding officers should be provided with "all" available information about the call.

At least three officers should be dispatched to the scene when possible and outside agencies should be used if necessary.

Officers should use available cover or concealment whenever possible, work as a team to disembark patrons, maintain Station perimeter, etc.

Search the train using a "leap frog" tactic from door to door working as a team.

The report also says “work as a team”, “stay together”, and “contact-cover”, are familiar procedures to law enforcement officers, but weren’t on display that night. It was apparent to the firm that BART officers did not confront a limited number of suspects, did not work as a team, and most importantly, did not search the five detainees. It was also obvious to the firm that there wasn’t an incident commander present that night. An incident commander's role is to institutionalize the four “A’s”: Assess, Announce, Assemble, and Act. That night, four of these A's were missing.

According to the report, it was also clear that the taser was wrongfully used. Video footage captured the night of the incident showed that the taser was often pointed in unsafe directions.

The firm's report concludes that BART should provide their officers with a tactical debrief of the incident and point out areas of improvement. They also recommend updating the policy manual to not only addresses “how” officers should behave, but “why” such behavior is necessary.

It’s obvious BART has got some training to do.