CHENEY — In an email to the members of the city council, a resident voiced concerns over the purchase of civil unrest equipment for the police department.
On April 20, Corinna Donnerberg wrote to the council members, saying “I am writing to express my concern about the approval of the funding for the CPD to purchase ‘civil unrest’ equipment.”
Donnerberg detailed her concerns on several different issues, saying that “civil unrest” is an indefinite term that fails to describe the scope of the need for such equipment.
“Why is the city funding the purchase of specialized equipment to respond to an issue that has not been defined?” Donnerberg said.
Interim Chief Rick Beghtol said to Donnerberg that the police department has in the past been required to respond to situations that require specialized equipment in order fulfill their mission of protecting persons and property, in response to questions posed to him by Donnerberg on March 27.
Beghtol confirmed in this exchange that the city council had authorized the expenditure of $16,200 for this purpose.
“We are currently testing two shields and I anticipate they will be less than the six thousand dollars budgeted,” Beghtol said.
Donnerberg said in her letter to the council that certain situations which were cited as justification for the use of such equipment did not make sense. She expressed concern that the police would consider using such equipment in situations such as encountering “out of control” house parties.
“I have significant concerns around the use of kinetic energy displacement devices from a safety and human rights perspective,” Donnerberg said.
Donnerberg questioned the type of data which was used to support the proposal for purchasing such equipment.
Beghtol explained in an exchange with Donnerberg that situations where such equipment may become necessary include incidents involving civil unrest and such demonstrations that devolve into the participants damaging property and/or throwing projectiles.
“They also involved out of control house parties in which rocks and bottles were thrown at the police who were there because of a complaint and the “partygoers” made a conscious decision to throw projectiles at the responding officers...we need to provide our officers with the necessary tools to protect themselves,” Beghtol said.
Donnerberg said that aside from a brief response from Councilwoman Teresa Overhauser, none of the members of the city council members have responded to these comments as of the publication of this article.
Lucas is a former Cheney Free Press managing editor. He is a nationally published author who contributes regularly to several publications across the country.
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