KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — The prestigious Police Foundation has agreed to put Kalamazoo’s February mass-shooting under their microscope — not to determine the guilt or innocence of Jason Dalton, but to find out if local law enforcers did anything wrong that night.
The foundation will analyze what they did correctly that night and recommend what they might do better if it ever happens again, here or anywhere else in the nation.
The independent Washington D.C. non-profit is made up of crime-fighting experts who claim they are dedicated to the advancement and improvement of law enforcement.
The organization is currently doing critical incident response studies of crimes in Minnesota and the terrorist killings in San Bernadino.
Kalamazoo Public Safety, the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners and the city of Portage have all tentatively agreed to contribute a combined $65,000 to fund the analysis by the group.
Dr. Frank Straub, who is with the foundation, said they will be examining how well the local enforcement agencies had prepared for such an incident, how they responded to make the arrest, and how they have reacted since. They will also be looking at the communications systems and dispatch operations that some say could have worked better that night.
Their 50-to-100 page report will be then made public so all law enforcement agencies can learn from what happened in Kalamazoo.
One reason they want to study the Kalamazoo incident is because it’s unique. Most mass-shootings involve attacks on single targets like schools, movie theatres or work places.
Jason Dalton, 45, is charged with committing three separate and distinct assaults on random victims, allegedly picking up Uber passengers between shootings.
Straub said it takes a certain amount of courage for local police agencies to submit their organizations to the kind of independent investigation and scrutiny their group is known for. Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley said it’s important to get an objective evaluation of what happened that night because it could happen again.
