NORFOLK, Va. -- Recruits eager to join the Police Department will no longer have to endure strikes to the head -- or defend themselves in training when they are exhausted.
The changes will help prevent recruit injuries and improve the department, Norfolk's acting chief of police and a panel of experts said Tuesday during a news conference.
The new procedures follow the death of John Kohn, who was injured in training in December and is the only recruit to ever die in Norfolk police training.
A four-member panel reviewed the department's defensive-tactics training. Acting police Chief Sharon Chamberlinannounced its findings.
Other changes:
- Instructors are now receiving training from medical professionals on how to recognize head trauma.
- All recruits in upcoming academies will learn from a medical professional about head trauma and the importance of reporting it, whether it involves themselves or a fellow recruit.
- Defensive tactics training will be done in one- or two-hour segments to reduce fatigue-related injuries.
Kohn, 40, died Dec. 18, having never regained consciousness after a series of blows to the head from an instructor and a head-to-head collision with another recruit nine days earlier. Earlier in that week of training he had been knocked down by an instructor and another recruit.
Defensive tactics instructors and training academy staff attended a preliminary class on head injuries on Feb. 18, Chamberlin said. The training will continue, she said. Before becoming the department's acting chief of police earlier this month, Chamberlin in her role as senior assistant chief oversaw the city's police training.
"Our goal is to become better," Chamberlin said. "We are going to take these panel findings and recommendations and reshape what we're doing."
Dr. Barry Knapp, an emergency room physician in Hampton Roads and the medical director for Norfolk Fire-Rescue, said the panel's findings are an important step toward making recruits safe, while still ensuring they learn to block attacks and defend themselves.
"I think this is a tremendous opportunity for the Norfolk Police Department and specifically its training division to be a role model across the country on how one handles safely training their recruits," said Knapp, who served on the panel.
Panel members want police staff and recruits to be aware that even minor, repetitive head trauma "can result in catastrophic outcomes," Knapp said.
Chamberlin would not directly address questions about Leldon Sapp, the instructor who hit Kohn in the head just before he blacked out.
"I'm going to address the current panel recommendations and move forward from here," she said. She gave similar answers when pressed by TV reporters about Sapp's employment status, what she thought of a video showing him punching Kohn, and whether the level of force used was appropriate when considering the department's protocol at the time.
"We will continue to study this incident," she said.
Kohn's cause of death remains under investigation by the Virginia Department of Health.
After the new conference, the city released documents requested in late January by The Virginian-Pilot related to police recruit injuries.
The panel reviewed reports going back to 2004. Among nearly 600 recruits who participated in training, 129 injuries were recorded during defensive tactics training: 78 sprains and strains, 40 contusions, nine fractures or dislocations and two concussions, the panel's report said.
Dr. Anthony Cetrone of NowCare, the clinic that provides emergency treatment for Norfolk recruits and a panel participant, said the nature of the injuries -- mainly sprains and strains -- was not excessive.
"We were satisfied that that was in keeping with expectations around the type of physical training that is necessary in the police academy," he said.
Still, he said, the changes being adopted should reduce injuries. Among them: the switch to shorter periods of defensive-tactics training spread across an entire academy session.
That move is designed to reduce injuries related to fatigue, Chamberlin said. Recruits previously had been taught defensive tactics on 11 days, each lasting eight hours.
Chamberlin took over as acting chief after the announcement that Chief Bruce P. Marquis was retiring. Marquis was forced out following backlash over the department's handling of Kohn's injury. Reports from the department and Marquis mentioned only a head-to-head collision with another recruit as a potential cause of Kohn's injury; it was not until news media requested records and videos did the public learn that Kohn had been punched in the head by instructors before and after the collision.
Norfolk police recruit class 87 -- which was Kohn's class -- will graduate on March 24. Class 88 has begun training.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
