On the night he died, Douglas Ostling dialed 911 but he wasnt in distress, according

to his parents. Bill and Joyce Ostling said they cautioned the police officers who showed
up at their Bainbridge Island, Washington, home that their 43-year-old son, who lived in
an apartment above the garage, was mentally ill. But when Douglas came to the
apartment door carrying the ax he used to cut kindling for his wood-burning stove, the
situation escalated.
The Ostlings and the police provide different accounts of what happened next. What is
certain is that one of the officers shot Douglas. Over the next hour and 17 minutes, he
bled to death on the floor of the apartment while the police surrounding the garage
treated him as a barricaded suspect.
After their sons death in October 2010, the Ostlings advocated for better crisis training
for Washington state police officers. Last month, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee signed
the Douglas M. Ostling Act, which mandates that all officers in the state receive an initial
eight hours of crisis intervention training and participate in a two-hour review course
each year. The bill also includes a mechanism to pay for 25 percent of the patrol officers
statewide to participate in a 40-hour training program.
There are a lot of things broken, and we helped fix one, Bill Ostling said. Its not a
total fix, but at least it starts getting some attention, which is needed.
Spurred by police shootings in Missouri, South Carolina, Ohio and Maryland, lawmakers
in many states have debated policing reform measures this legislative session. Among
them: measures requiring local police to provide more extensive training, equip officers
with body cameras and collect better data on the use of force. But many of the
proposals have stalled because of a lack of money and resistance from local police
agencies.

Financial Realities
About half of the police agencies in the U.S. employed fewer than 10 officers in 2013,
according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. For such small departments, the cost of

training including paying officers to fill in for those receiving additional training in the
classroom is a major barrier.
In Ohio, where an attorney generals advisory group recently recommended increasing
continuing training requirements for officers from 24 to 40 hours, Fraternal Order of
Police President Jay McDonald said police agencies support training measures, but the
proposed requirements would cost an additional $30 million annually.
We just want to make sure that the recommendations of the task force and the
implementation of any recommendation doesnt jeopardize their safety and doesnt
jeopardize employers ability to fund police operations, McDonald said.
Similar concerns played out in Colorado, where Republican state Sen. John Cooke, a
former county sheriff, joined with Democrats to pass initiatives including a grant
program to help local agencies pay for body cameras, a move to bring outside oversight
to investigations of police departments and a requirement that officers receive additional
situational de-escalation, community policing and anti-bias training.
Cooke called other bills, such as a failed attempt to ban the use of chokehold
techniques, pretty extreme.
Im not saying that for every minor arrest a chokehold is used, Cooke explained. But
when youre in a knockdown, drag-out fight, youve got to do what youve got to do.
Cooke said many of the ideas proposed by Denver-area lawmakers dont translate well
in smaller, rural jurisdictions.
You have different community needs and different agency size, Cooke said. You cant
write a law that covers everything. Mandatory training a lot of these small agencies
dont have the funds or the money to do the training they want to get done.

Jennifer Shaw, deputy director of the ACLU in Washington state, where the Ostling bill
will take effect in late July, said training is typically left to local jurisdictions, but policies
governing police action should be standard across the state.
Money could be one reason agencies resist training mandates, she said, but it is more
likely that localities want control over their police departments.
They dont seem to have a problem taking money when its offered, Shaw said. But
when it comes to laying down certain requirements of how policy is written, how training
is undertaken, thats where the local jurisdictions get upset.
She said its important to have statewide policies, since officers from different agencies
often work together.
Before 2015, only four states had body camera laws on the books. By May, 34 states
were at least considering legislation related to the devices.
Promoted as a way to hold police accountable, the cameras have raised questions
about procedure, public records access and the expense of storing, reviewing and
releasing footage.
In a 2014 survey by the Police Executive Research Forum, nearly 40 percent of police
agencies without body cameras reported cost was the primary barrier to using the
devices.

Tracking Use of Force

While cameras and training are getting a lot of attention from lawmakers, some policing
experts say the countrys next wave of reforms lies in accurately tracking how and when
officers use lethal force.
Two states, North Carolina and Oregon, already require data collection for incidents
involving deadly force, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures
(NCSL). Legislators in seven states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland,

Massachusetts, North Carolina and Virginia) have introduced legislation this year to
address or expand data collection.
There is no federal standard for collecting and comparing data about police use of force,
though the FBI does maintain a database of officers who are assaulted or killed.
If we had a national database with data by city, we could then say these police
departments are doing much better than these others, said Samuel Walker, a policing
expert and professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. We could then
do research about communities policies, management, personnel practices that
contribute to lower rates of shooting.
In Maryland, lawmakers were already considering a number of reforms before public
outcry over the death of Freddie Gray, a Baltimore man who died in police custody,
reached a fever pitch.
Del. Alonzo Washington, a Democrat from Prince Georges County outside Washington,
D.C., spearheaded a new law that requires law enforcement agencies to report all
officer-involved deaths to the Maryland Governors Office of Crime Control and
Prevention.
We need more transparency and accountability, Washington said. People died at the
hands of police officers, why shouldnt we know that?
Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan recently signed that measure, along with a bill
creating a commission to establish guidelines for police-worn cameras and a measure
to establish behavioral health units at police agencies in the Baltimore area.
In Colorado, a similar law will require every officer involved shooting be reported to the
state Division of Criminal Justice. Cooke also sponsored that legislation.

Many Bills, Few Laws

The U.S. Justice Department has opened nearly two dozen investigations of police
departments during the past six years after allegations of brutality or in the wake of
police shootings. It has recommended reforms in cities such as Seattle, Newark, New
Jersey, and Ferguson, Missouri, or entered into settlements to change policing policies,
as it did last weekin Cleveland.
Although the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson last August launched a
national dialogue on police tactics and sparked plenty of discussion in state capitols,
that hasnt translated into many new state lawsat least not yet.
In Missouri, for instance, lawmakers proposed more than 50 reforms during the
legislative session. But only one a measure to limit the revenue local jurisdictions can
raise through traffic tickets became law.
Additionally, Missouri and 19 other states proposed nearly 50 bills regarding racial bias
training for officers, according to NCSL. None passed except the one in Colorado, the
group said.
Sarah Rossi, director of advocacy and policy for the Missouri ACLU, said legislative
leaders in Missouri lacked the appetite to pursue real change. I think the most
important point was there were so many bills that could have addressed police reform
and so many of them were ignored or given a cursory glance and then ignored, Rossi
said.
When the Missouri Legislature began its session in January, then-House Speaker John
Diehl, a Republican, told reporters the House would not have a Ferguson agenda, and
lawmakers would not be eager just to throw money at a problem.
In Ohio, McDonald of the Fraternal Order of Police said the issue comes down to
money. There are over 900 police agencies in the state of Ohio, so what might be
needed in Cleveland or Cincinnati might not be needed [in a rural area.]

But Mike Brickner, senior policy director for the ACLU of Ohio, said financing is only a
part of the resistance to change.
Its kind of like swimming in a sea of Jell-O, he said. Its very hard to make progress,
its very slow going, its very arduous. None of these will be overnight solutions.