Sunday, November 20, 2016

TRAGIC ERROR AND MAYBE POOR TRAINING COST ONE OFFICER HIS LIFE, ANOTHER HIS CAREER AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

BY Bob Walsh

The Bay Area Rapid Transit District operates one of the rapid transit systems in the greater San Francisco bay area. Like many such organizations it has its own police force. These officers have general police powers.

Nearly three years ago some BART officers were doing a parole search of a private residence hoping to recover stolen property. They knew the bad guy would not be there because he was in custody. (That doesn't mean some other bad guy might not be there.) The officers had not studied the floor plan of the apartment, which was largely circular. Officer Michael Maes and Det. Sgt. Thomas Smith encountered each other unexpectedly during the search. Maes misidentified Smith as an armed bad guy and shot him to death. Smith's wife at the time was also a BART police officer.

BART just settled a wrongful death suit with the Smith family for $3.1 million. Officer Maes has since left the department.

Smith had previously requested specific training in building searches and been denied. BART has now modified their procedure for dealing with these requests.

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