The San Diego District Attorney's office said there have been eight officer-involved shootings and four in custody deaths in 2018 so far. Officer involved shootings are down from 20 in 2017, but in custody deaths have doubled from last year.
District Attorney Summe Stephan said after careful review of the evidence, no law enforcement officers will face any criminal charges in any of the cases.
"Based upon a thorough review of the facts and circumstances of the incidents that we’re releasing today, including the fact that six of them had guns or knives," she said, "in all of these incidents the peace officers involved acted reasonably under the circumstances."
Stephan said that in all four in custody deaths the victims had methamphetamine in their systems.
"It's one of those drugs that really alters behaviors. There are a lot of studies nationwide that show a very direct linkage between homicides and methamphetamine use so it's one of those drugs that is related to violence," she said.
She said in many of the cases, family members called police for help with their loved ones who dealt with substance abuse or mental health issues, and oftentimes both. She said it's important for law enforcement to have as much information as possible when responding to these incidents.
"It's really important that they know if this is their drug of choice if it's methamphetamine or if it's opioids. Whatever it is, give that information. If they have a diagnosis, a mental health diagnosis, also provide that. If you know that they’re known to act violently when they’ve used certain drugs, then provide that information, because the more prepared that the responding officers are for what they’re going to encounter the better off their loved one is going to be," she said.
She said she has been working with various officials in the law enforcement and mental health communities to issue a resource card for family members dealing with a loved one with substance abuse or mental health issues. She said tackling these issues in non-crisis times will help reduce the number of fatal incidents with police.
