Garden Shears Case Study

On May 20, 2014, two Salinas Police Officers were dispatched to an residential address

where a woman reported a male tried to choke her dog, threatened to cut the dog’s head off and

to kill her after he tried to break into her house. The officers arrived on scene and located the

male suspect walking on the sidewalk holding large industrial sized gardening shears with seven

inch blades. The male was ordered multiple times, in Spanish and English, to drop the shears and

to comply with the officer’s orders. Instead, the male continued to walk towards a busy

intersection with pedestrians and a bakery that was open for business.

Both officers deployed their Tasers, one malfunctioned and the other had no affect on the

male. The male continued to walk closer to the busy intersection and the bakery while

continuing to ignore officer’s commands. The officers feared the male would attack a pedestrian

at the busy intersection or enter the bakery and attack the people inside who would not be able to

runaway as easily. Both officers feared the safety of the pedestrians and the people inside the

bakery were in immediate and life threatening danger and shot the male to stop his advancement.

The male, Carlos Mejia-Gomez, died as a result of the gunfire.

This information is unarguable facts that have been proven to have occurred that lead up

to Mr. Mejia-Gomez being shot by two Salinas Police Officers. This Salinas Police shooting was

the third within five months that resulted in a Hispanic male being shot and killed by police.

This sparked community protests, riots and allegations of racism and police brutality against

Latinos within the Salinas community.

The Salinas Police of Chief, Kelly McMillin, held press conferences where he released

photographs, videos and displayed evidence from the crime scene with members of the media.
This case study will analyze how the information from the police department was released and

how the information was shared with the public utilizing transparency, attempting to maintain

credibility as a department and management post incident.

2014 was a difficult year for the Salinas Police Department as they were faced with a

staffing crisis. Department administrators reduced the agency to only have detectives and patrol

officers. This decision was not enough to help the staffing emergency and many employees

found themselves being ordered in on their days off to cover vacancies that were not being filled.

This critical staffing issue took its toll on community policing. As Presentation 5.1 suggested,

“Community policing includes getting to know community members…and the establishments of

storefronts” and holding an “open house..to meet your team in an open transparent

setting…” (Patrick, 2019). This was not being accomplished because the officers did not have

enough proactive time throughout the shifts, they were overworked and morale had decreased.

The lack of community outreach and positive interactions reached a boiling point after Mr.

Mejia-Gomez was shot by Salinas Police Officers.

The final seconds of Mejia-Gomez’s life was captured on grainy and shaky cell phone

video which was quickly played across the national news channels The video did not capture the

entire incident from beginning, but it played a crucial role in adding context to the already

emotionally charged situation. Two days after the shooting Chief of Police Kelly McMillin held

a media press conference where he released surveillance video that captured the shooting from a

birds eye view, police/dispatch audio recordings and the 9-1-1 call that initiated the police

response. Chief McMillin also displayed the garden shears Mejia-Gomez had in his possession

at the time he was shot. Chief McMillin used all of these items in an attempt to convey to the
public and media that his department was transparent about the investigation and the details

surrounding the incident. Chief McMillin maintained good strong eye contact that illustrated his

confidence and control over the situation. His decision to release the information helped his

efforts to be transparent and clear about what had happened; but unfortunately, the decision to

release the details came two days too late. The night following the shooting sparked riots

throughout East Salinas, vandalism to patrol vehicles and injuries to officers after being stuck by

projectiles. Chief McMillin had to communicate on the department’s behalf because if not “the

narrative becomes somebody else’s” but the communication might have been too late and the

damage had already began (Agnes, 2016).

Chief Kelly McMillin had many requests to “reform the department” and review the

agency’s policies and procedures. Chief McMillin heard these requests and chose an alternative

to help maintain his credibility as a law enforcement leader. Chief McMillin publicly announced

to forward their final investigations from the shooting to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights

Division and to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. This decision helped maintain his

“credibility, character…trustworthiness and fairness” in a moment where community members

did not trust or believe other members of the police department (Fitch, 2016). He continued to

demonstrate transparency while remaining true to his leadership position.

Today’s Salinas Police Department has began to embrace the importance of pushing

information out through social media and releasing critical information faster to the public. The

department created a Social Media Team responsible for building a “bank of community trust”

that one day will need to “make a withdraw out of” during an critical incident (Agnes, 2018).
 References

Agnes, M. (3 April 2016). How Law Enforcement Can Position itself as the Source of Trust and

Credibility in a Crisis. Viewed from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLgaQJPZEe4

Agnes, M. (5 June 2018). How to Manage Controversial Issues. Viewed from: https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfnX8vaGUWQ

Fitch, B. (2016). Law Enforcement Interpersonal Communication and Conflict Management.

Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Production.

Patrick, W. (2019). Communicating with the Public. Communication for Law Enforcement

Leaders; Module 5. University of San Diego.