Page 317 - 2023 PPIAC RMIC BOOK

Case #3:

Police Training Accidental Death

Punta Gorda, FL Police Department “Citizens Academy”

Retired Librarian Mary Knowlton moments before her death

Case #3:

Police Training Accidental Death - Citizens Academy

• The purpose was to familiarize Punta Gorda community members with the Police Department’s
“operation, facilities, equipment, and provide them with insight about what the average police officer
in their community encounters,"

• There were 31 attendees at this event on August 09, 2016. Police Chief Lewis opened the program
with a Power Point presentation about his department’s operations. The guests were then broken up
into groups and given a tour of the police station, before the start of four live-action exercises.
• The Police Dept. called the exercises “live role play demonstrations”, however for the purposes of
this presentation and for the reasons outlined earlier I will refer to them as “force-on-force”
scenarios.
• There was no lesson plan for the event, only an outline of the program’s activities.
• The simulated acts were designed to include randomly selected participants from the community who
would experience what it was like for a police officer to contend with use of force scenarios.