CMPD Denies Officers Used Excessive Force

CHARLOTTE, NC — “We reviewed everything, and no laws were violated,” says CMPD Chief Kerr Putney. “The use of force was not unreasonable.”

Chief Putney is backing his officers, saying they were justified in how they handled a hit and run suspect in East Charlotte last Tuesday.

Cell phone video went viral after the arrest, and brought allegations of excessive use of force. Now the chief and the CMPD training staff are answering those allegations, saying officers are doing things by the book when dealing with resisting suspects. And they say their own video backs that up.

“No use of force looks good,” says Chief Putney. “There is no way we can use force against a citizen, a community member, and it play well.”

But that scenario played out last week in East Charlotte, when officers had to subdue 26-year-old Malcolm Elliott after a hit and run. The incident was caught on camera, then went viral, spurring allegations of excessive force.

“The punches you saw were generated, or aimed, at the clavicle muscles, the back, the shoulder of the suspect to try to loosen up their arm,” says CMPD Lt. Sean Mitchell, describing the officers’ actions in the video.

CMPD held a demonstration at the training academy Tuesday hoping to educate the media, and the public, on what officers are trying to do when dealing with a suspect who is resisting.

“As you’ve seen, this is a really tough position to deal with; somebody that gets their hands up underneath them,” says CMPD Officer Brent Simpson, who works to train recruits, describing a cadet lying in a similar position to Elliott. “There’s a big concern, primarily because of where her hands are at. Most people carry guns around their core area too, so I don’t know what’s going on around her waist area.”

In this case, Chief Putney says the officers did the right thing and there is no excessive use of force. But this case also highlights another problem; everybody has a cell phone ready to record, and that puts CMPD officers under the microscope.

“Cameras can’t give you the whole view,” says Putney.

Charlotte city council made a $7 million investment so every CMPD officer could have a body camera, providing more perspective.

“That paid dividends,” says Putney. “We have another, a few other, angles in that particular case that really shed some light that I did not expect to see when I saw the video that went viral.”

Chief Putney knows his officers are facing increasing challenges, dealing with racial issues and various levels of resistance.

“There were a lot of opportunities to prevent us from using any level of control at all, any force at all,” says Chief Putney. “And that decision is out of the police’s hands. We can’t control that, we can only react.”

Putney says the investigation into this case is still ongoing, but CMPD does expect to wrap it up soon.

Elliott was charged with hit and run, resisting arrest and driving with a revoked license.