Today, Chief Ott spoke at the April 7th news conference to address the decision and its impact. You can read his complete statement here:
Statement
Today may bring a wide range of emotions for the family, our officers, and our community—particularly within our growing immigrant community, who may feel uniquely impacted.
We hear those concerns, and we are continuing to maintain open lines of communication with both the family and community leaders to ensure that everyone is heard and supported as we move forward.
With the Prosecutor’s announcement that there will be no charges filed and following our policy, I have convened a Use of Force Review Panel. This panel is staffed with internal and external experts from surrounding jurisdictions to do a thorough review.
This is a standard process to make sure our policies were followed and to see if we need to make changes to better serve our community. We will share the findings as soon as they are finalized.
We know many have questions about body-worn cameras. We’ve been working on deploying cameras to all officers, and we expect every officer to have one by mid-April. We started this process last fall and signed the contract at the beginning of this year. It’s been a priority for us.
We’ve also heard concerns about potential language barriers. In our ongoing conversations with community leaders, we’re looking for ways to better support officers in dynamic and evolving situations. We know there’s no perfect solution, but we’re always working to improve.
This has been a challenging time for many in our community. We know trust is not built in a single moment—it’s a process. We will continue to be open, transparent, and committed to learning from this experience.