The Boise Office of Police Accountability presented its annual report to the City Council Tuesday, breaking down both the complaints against the Police Department and its use of deadly force.
In 2024, Boise Police Department officers killed 6 people, bringing the total since 2015 to 22.
OPA Data Analyst Lexi said BPD recorded 151 instances of officers either drawing a weapon or using physical force on a member of the public last year.
“The presence of a weapon and disobeying officer commands were the most common reasons given for applying force for use of force,” she explained.
OPA Director Nicole McKay recommended the department continue to prioritize de-escalation techniques.
“Repetitive yelling is ineffective. It can result in conflicting orders by multiple officers. For example. ‘Don't move. Show me your hands. Get on the ground! Do it now,’” she explained.
“We have seen incidents where you will have multiple officers all yelling different commands at the same time. It's very chaotic,” she said, adding it was understandable.
“We are in very high risk, dynamic situations. And I think that is an instinctual thing to do. What we are trying to really encourage training to focus on is having that designated communicator and the discipline by all the other officers to not say anything.”
McKay added the OPA encouraged both data transparency and accountability.
“The current data systems used to store and access BPD data are challenging to view, utilize and validate,” she said. “It is also challenging to connect BPD data to other sources of data, migrating to a system that allows the software products to, quote unquote, speak to each other would be highly beneficial to both BPD and OPA.”
The OPA also completed 28 investigations of alleged police misconduct last year, finding that 15 were substantiated. The majority were related to performance in duty and rudeness.
