Patrols delayed for new Pueblo police after arrest training program fails inspection

Six police officers, a crisis intervention team clinician and a Fremont County deputy graduated on Friday from the Pueblo Police Academy — but they won't immediately be deployed after their arrest control training program failed an audit because of the tactics it uses.

Five officers who graduated from the academy last year have been pulled from the streets for the same reason, Pueblo police said. They will be given the opportunity to “test out” of additional arrest control training, said police chief Chris Noeller.

The Pueblo Police Department implemented new arrest control techniques early last year amid concerns over "the strike-heavy curriculum in the FBI defensive tactics" and concerns with a state Senate bill which, among other things, changed when and how officers can use force.

The bill, which also changed whether a law enforcement officer could be held legally and financially liable for certain misconduct, was one of the first police reform bills signed into law in the U.S. after the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020. Floyd repeatedly told Chauvin he couldn’t breathe as the officer knelt on his neck.

"I gave guidance early in 2021 to instruct additional defensive tactic techniques to limit the issues related to punching people, especially in our current environment," Noeller said in a statement.

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The tactics taught in Pueblo included aspects of martial arts, including a jiu jitsu grapple officers learned to use to control a suspect.

"One of the things I'm trying to help officers get away from is the use of close-hand strikes," or punches, Noeller said at a ceremony Friday for the 8 graduating officers.

"It's safer for officers, that's how you can break a hand, and it doesn't play well on TV — if there are other ways of doing it, it's safer for the suspect," he said.

But when a team from Colorado Police Officer Standards and Training traveled to Pueblo on March 14 to inspect the arrest control training program, they found it to be out of compliance, the police department said in a statement.

"I promise you, we're not teaching our officers crazy tactics that are unsafe, that are going to cause further injury," Noeller said at the ceremony, held in Pueblo Memorial Hall. "The idea is to reduce further injury to both our officers and suspects."

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Noeller took responsibility for changing the training program.

"I made a bad decision. I didn't think about the ramifications of how it would work with POST," he said, referring to the Police Officer Standards and Training team. "I think it's a good idea, I stand by what we're doing, it just wasn't the right place to do it in the academy."

The Pueblo police were sanctioned by POST because their training program deviated from the FBI curriculum.

The police department plans to work with POST to create a hybrid program that would combine "the best parts of the FBI defensive tactics and the best parts of another technique," Noeller said.

The ultimate goal is to "teach our officers to take suspects into custody in a way that is safe for them and our suspects, and lives up to the ideals of what our community wants from our police department," he said.

It will likely be about a year before the new program can be fully implemented, said Noeller.

In the meantime, the training of one group of officers will be delayed by about 30 days while the department works to get the curriculum approved, but, beyond that, training will not be affected, he said.

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Officer Jordan Lira, who graduated Friday, said that his class was taking the delays to starting work in stride.

"It means two more weeks of training, that's all," he said. "Two more weeks of training, and then we're out on the street and ready to rock and roll."

Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at Jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jayreutter1.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Patrols delayed for new Pueblo police after arrest training program fails inspection