The Irving Police Department is releasing the following statement pertaining to recent allegations of police misconduct and use of excessive force. These allegations were brought forth by family members, a special interest group, and a local reporter. Due to departmental policy/procedure police could not discuss specific detail of the investigation until all the facts were known and the investigation concluded. To do so or to speculate on any possible outcome would have been irresponsible and inappropriate. The department maintained however that upon completion the facts of the investigation would be released. Keeping with that promise, the following summation is being relayed.
Internal Affairs conducted a thorough exhaustive investigation into these allegations, which included interviews with, and statements from, involved parties and interviews with all witnesses. After a review of the facts they determined that all allegations were unfounded. The force used was objectively reasonable for the situation the officers faced and no violation of law, policy or procedure was found.
The investigation resulted in many points of fact that the department could not discuss prior to the completion of the investigation, inclusive of the following:
Mr. and Mrs. Campoy, with prior knowledge of their son’s history of combative behavior with police officers chose to take him out of school and intentionally interject him into this situation. Their actions transformed a routine burglary report into a violent situation. The officers faced an extremely volatile situation and were forced to restrain an individual exhibiting extremely violent threats and actions, including threats to shoot people. That individual was restrained in an effort to prevent injury to him or any others at the location, including the residents. After being restrained, the individual continued to actively and violently resist and in the process managed to maneuver his cuffed hands from behind his back, to the front, which greatly increased the chance for him to injure the officer. The situation also involved a family member physically attempting to interfere and the officers used discretion in not placing her under arrest. The force used by the officer at that point was determined to be objectively reasonable and the injury sustained by the individual was a result of his own behavior. Had the individual been fully cooperative, the risk for everyone would have been greatly reduced and no injuries would have occurred.
Internal Affairs also determined that the family made many inaccurate and greatly embellished statements regarding the events. In some cases stories changed, were recanted, or simply conflicted with other witness testimony. These findings seriously impaired their value and credibility as witnesses.
Investigating further, all “witnesses” to the situation (cited by the family, their representatives, or seen on news reports or located by the investigators) were contacted and interviewed during the continued efforts to determine the facts of the incident. Many of the witnesses gave investigators written statements that differed significantly from accounts given to the media. Many were found to have provided embellished and inaccurate accounts of what had occurred when they re-canted and/or changed their account of the incident or admitted that they didn’t actually see what they had claimed previously.
Irving’s Chief of Police, Larry Boyd stated “The Irving Police Department takes allegations such as this very seriously and we hold our officers strictly accountable to our policies and the law. We also recognize that officers work in a very difficult environment where, unfortunately circumstances sometimes require the use of force. We are confident that this case was thoroughly investigated and the force used was objectively reasonable”.
Internal Affairs conducted a thorough exhaustive investigation into these allegations, which included interviews with, and statements from, involved parties and interviews with all witnesses. After a review of the facts they determined that all allegations were unfounded. The force used was objectively reasonable for the situation the officers faced and no violation of law, policy or procedure was found.
The investigation resulted in many points of fact that the department could not discuss prior to the completion of the investigation, inclusive of the following:
Mr. and Mrs. Campoy, with prior knowledge of their son’s history of combative behavior with police officers chose to take him out of school and intentionally interject him into this situation. Their actions transformed a routine burglary report into a violent situation. The officers faced an extremely volatile situation and were forced to restrain an individual exhibiting extremely violent threats and actions, including threats to shoot people. That individual was restrained in an effort to prevent injury to him or any others at the location, including the residents. After being restrained, the individual continued to actively and violently resist and in the process managed to maneuver his cuffed hands from behind his back, to the front, which greatly increased the chance for him to injure the officer. The situation also involved a family member physically attempting to interfere and the officers used discretion in not placing her under arrest. The force used by the officer at that point was determined to be objectively reasonable and the injury sustained by the individual was a result of his own behavior. Had the individual been fully cooperative, the risk for everyone would have been greatly reduced and no injuries would have occurred.
Internal Affairs also determined that the family made many inaccurate and greatly embellished statements regarding the events. In some cases stories changed, were recanted, or simply conflicted with other witness testimony. These findings seriously impaired their value and credibility as witnesses.
Investigating further, all “witnesses” to the situation (cited by the family, their representatives, or seen on news reports or located by the investigators) were contacted and interviewed during the continued efforts to determine the facts of the incident. Many of the witnesses gave investigators written statements that differed significantly from accounts given to the media. Many were found to have provided embellished and inaccurate accounts of what had occurred when they re-canted and/or changed their account of the incident or admitted that they didn’t actually see what they had claimed previously.
Irving’s Chief of Police, Larry Boyd stated “The Irving Police Department takes allegations such as this very seriously and we hold our officers strictly accountable to our policies and the law. We also recognize that officers work in a very difficult environment where, unfortunately circumstances sometimes require the use of force. We are confident that this case was thoroughly investigated and the force used was objectively reasonable”.
