Officer involved shootings in Beaumont claimed the lives of three individuals since July.
A late august shooting on Palm Street made the fourth for Beaumont Police this year.
"I would say that it's higher maybe than normal, but we don't choose the incidents we respond to. So unfortunately, we have to go with what we have, protection of life is our primary goal," says Beaumont Police Chief Tim Ocnaschek.
The most recent shooting tied to officers serving a warrant for narcotics, which can be a dangerous operation.
"If the risk is high enough we actually use the SWAT team and regardless of how small or large when any time we're executing a search warrant, there's a plan made and the right number of people are used to execute that," says Ocnaschek.
According to the chief, options can be limited when a split second decision has to be made.
"The bottom line is we can't afford to risk somebody else's life for somebody that's committing a crime. So my hope is that, you know, these don't happen," says Ocnaschek.
He also expresses that procedural adjustments are made after incidents saying, "Any big incident, we look at it for after action purposes, whether it's telling us things we did good or things we could improve on or things that we need to make sure that there's training to make sure other people can benefit from, so we don't reinvent the wheel, so to speak, but everything is looked at closely, not just policy."
Beaumont Police is working on getting all officers certified as mental health officers by providing at least two certification courses a year.
52 officers are certified as of now.
Regarding body cam footage, Chief Ocnaschek also tells us that the department holds the footage until the DA's office and grand jury have been able to review all of the materials from an investigation.
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