"Unwarranted"

Police Chief Art Acevedo issued a 90-day suspension – the largest amount of time a temporary suspension can last – to Officer Christopher Van Buren Wednesday for violations Van Buren committed during a dispatch in late August.

The incident, which occurred only three weeks after Van Buren graduated out of the 15-month probationary period all graduates of APD’s police academy must endure before obtaining the full benefits of Civil Service, occurred shortly after Van Buren and Officer Daniel Jackson showed up to a call about a man urinating in public on Gonzalez Street and East Seventh. Acevedo said the subject was “lying on his back under a tree with his head resting under his hands on his duffel bag” when the two officers showed up. In-car video showed that Van Buren immediately drew his Taser. He ordered the man to get up, and the man “showed his hands as he got up.” Van Buren told the man to stand up and walk toward his squad car, threatening to tase him if he didn’t comply with orders. Bewildered, Acevedo said, the man remained seated. Van Buren later told Internal Affairs that he thought at that moment that the man had a “potential weapon” in his bag – a claim Acevedo said was both “unwarranted” and “unsupported by the video evidence.”

Before the man was given “a reasonable opportunity to voluntarily comply,” Van Buren deployed his Taser on him. Acevedo noted how the officer did this “in spite of having an additional officer present and being unable to articulate a reasonable justification for the tasing.” Questioned later, he told Internal Affairs that he used his Taser because the man “sucked his teeth,” an act of “preparatory aggression,” he said. Nobody else who reviewed the video believed the individual engaged in any threatening behavior toward Van Buren or Jackson whatsoever. He was cited for violations of six different APD policies: Determining the Objective Reasonableness of Force; Purpose and Scope (a guideline that details the reasons why an officer would use a Taser); Philosophy (similar to Purpose and Scope); Verbal Warnings; Application of the Taser Device; and Prohibited Uses, which includes using a Taser against “passively resisting subjects.”

It’s likely the “regret and contrition” Van Buren exhibited after watching the in-car footage with his Chain of Command that spared Van Buren from outright termination. The list of additional terms and conditions to which the young officer was forced to agree to along with the 90-day suspension is particularly long. Van Buren must complete an evaluated by a staff psychologist, along with any recommendations for counseling that comes with that, paid from his own pocket. He also must attend any training sessions specified by his Chain of Command, and assist the cadet training academy staff where assigned. He can’t appeal any sanction, and must agree to endure a one-year probationary period as soon as he returns from the suspension. Any slip-ups either within the department or at home could result in a complete firing.