Is public at risk when police sting leads to shooting?
An undercover officer’s fatal shooting of a suspected drug dealer in a busy store parking lot this week raises a question: Should police conduct a narcotics sting in a place where innocent bystanders could be at risk? Possibly, says one expert on police procedures. But it’s also the type of incident, he said, that should cause a police department to review the incident and whether enough was done to protect the public. “In an ideal world, you really don’t want to do anything in such a public location,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a lecturer in the department of law, police science and criminal justice administration at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. IMPD SHOOTING:Undercover cocaine deal led to shooting. When asked about the shooting Friday, Indianapolis Public Safety Director Scott Newman said there is no policy on where an undercover transaction can be held. “When we are undercover,” Newman said, “we go where the crime takes us.” But Newman stressed that in Thursday’
