SAN ANTONIO – From 2011 to 2014, officers with the San Antonio Police Department were involved in 46 shootings.
The department averages approximately 1.2 million calls per year that put an officer in contact with a member of the public. That includes traffic stops, calls to 911 and warrants being served.Â
At 46 shootings in a 48-month span, that's one shooting every 104,347 calls.
"I think it's a testament to the training that our officers receive," said San Antonio police Chief Anthony Trevino. "If you do the math, those incidents of violence between officers and somebody that they're placing into custody are very few and far between."
According to the department, there were 10 officer-involved shootings in 2011; nine in 2012; 14 in 2013; and 13 in 2014. All the shootings were investigated by the department and the district attorney's office and ruled justifiable. Three shootings from 2014 are still pending review by the D.A.'s office. In the other shootings, prosecutors or a grand jury have declined to pursue criminal charges against the officers.
Officer Michael Garza lost his job due to his actions leading up to a shooting.
Twenty-one of the shootings resulted in the death of a suspect. One officer was also killed during that time.
Officer-involved shootings in public eye
The national conversation surrounding officer-involved shootings has exploded over the last year.
The shooting of Ferguson, Missouri, teenager Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson sparked days of protests.
The shooting of Tamir Rice in Cleveland only added to the anger permeating the country. The 12-year-old was fatally shot by a police officer while playing with a toy gun in a park near his home.
Recently, the shooting of 50-year-old Walter Scott, an unarmed African-American man in South Carolina, has also shined a spotlight on the use of lethal force by police officers.
Trevino said his department goes to great lengths to prepare their officers to deal with situations in which use of force is necessary, but every incident presents a different set of circumstances and must be examined individually.
"There's not a playbook when officers go into those situations, especially when you have domestic violence calls (or) things of that nature," he said. "You have to be prepared for the unexpected, but we can't train for every single possible scenario. We try to train our officers as best as possible for that moment in time if they do have to use force."
Race a factor in national discussion
Race has also played a major role in the discussion surrounding officer-involved shootings. The hashtag #blacklivesmatter; is at the heart of an ongoing social media campaign calling for more training and improved diversity in the nation's police forces.
According to the SAPD, 38 of the suspects involved in the shooting incidents were white or Hispanic. Nine suspects were African-American. The suspects range in age from 17 to 53.
"I think that we're very fortunate here in the city of San Antonio, (and) with the San Antonio Police Department, that we have a police force that is pretty close to reflecting (racially) the community that we police," Trevino said. "If you have a diverse workforce, it really blends in well with the needs of the community. I think that's something that we've done a good job of doing. Something that we're going to continue doing in the future."
Protestors also seized on the fact that Brown, Rice and Scott were all unarmed.
Documents obtained by KSAT show that 31 officers involved in a shooting reported that the suspect had a gun. Four officers said the suspect had a knife. In 11 cases, a vehicle was used as a weapon.
Trevino said his department thoroughly investigates all officer-involved shootings and he's confident that the process works. He said it would benefit the public if the process was more transparent.
"It's kind of a catch-22. If you don't make the effort, you're criticized. If you do make the effort, you're still going to be criticized. It's something that I never want to lay at the feet of our organization of the department -- that we're not making that effort to be transparent," he said.
So far, there have been four officer-involved shootings in 2015 in San Antonio. With national scrutiny of officer-involved shooting incidents growing, Trevino said it's up to his department to reverse the current negative perception surrounding police officers and their use of lethal force.
"The only way that we're going to be able to move beyond that is just to have our officers in the field show that we're not South Carolina, show that we're not Tulsa, Oklahoma. That's something that's a day-in, day-out effort," he said. "Use-of-force incidents for officers are stressful in and of itself, but I think that we need to take every opportunity to better educate the public. I think that we need to make that good faith effort regardless of what the perception is."Â