ACLU report slams Anaheim for high rate of officer-involved deaths

Force used by on-duty Anaheim police officers kills people at a higher rate than in many other major U.S. cities, according to a new report from the ACLU of Southern California. 

Using data collected by the ACLU and from the Mapping Police Violence project, the organization determined that the rate of arrest-related deaths at the hands of Anaheim police officers is higher than the state average and higher than deaths at police agencies in Los Angeles, New York and San Diego.

However, Anaheim's acting Police Chief Julian Harvey pointed out several inaccuracies in the data. For example, the ACLU report included the 2015 death of Paul Anderson in its count. But an Orange County District Attorney’s investigation found that, although Anderson was shot by officers, he died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head. 

Harvey defended the department's progress in implementing police reforms, saying its review process of major use-of-force incidents, "is now a model for California."
  
In 2012, Anaheim police officers shot and killed two unarmed Latino men in back-to-back incidents. The killings set off riots and led the city to step up police oversight.

The ACLU report comes just weeks after a federal jury determined that an Anaheim PD officer used excessive force in the shooting death of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz in 2012. Diaz was shot in the back during a foot chase. He was unarmed.