Could Jamar Clark's shooting have been avoided?

On the grainy video capturing the moments before Jamar Clark was shot in the head, one image stands out.

On the left side of the frame, Minneapolis police officer Mark Ringgenberg wraps his right arm around Clark's neck, bringing him to the ground. From that point, only the patrolman's violently kicking legs can be seen. Forty seconds later, the 24-year-old Clark was mortally wounded.

Ringgenberg and his partner, Dustin Schwarze, were cleared last week by Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman of criminal wrongdoing in Clark's Nov. 15 shooting, with Freeman saying the evidence showed that Clark grabbed Ringgenberg's weapon. While some wonder whether police could have averted the struggle that led to the shooting, Freeman said it's hard to say.

"I had the same questions that everybody else did: This was a pretty aggressive takedown," Freeman said Friday. "I just don't know. It happened so quickly, it was a tense situation, it was chaotic out there. They were very apprehensive, if not scared of him."

Responding to a series of high-profile killings of unarmed black men by police officers across the country and ensuing outrage, some police departments have started to teach officers how to better balance the use of force with so-called "de-escalation" tactics meant to resolve confrontations with suspects more peacefully.

Minneapolis police officials say that they're already training their officers in techniques to better defuse conflict situations, and that Clark's death wouldn't lead to any policy changes.

"Absolutely not; anything that we are doing now was already in progress," said Cmdr. Tony Schoenberger, who heads the Minneapolis department's training division. "The actual Jamar Clark shooting has not had an impact on what we intend to do, but it is an example of why" de-escalation training is important, he said.

Schoenberger said that recruits already are taught to back away from potential threats if necessary, while using their surroundings as cover. Officers also are instructed to "slow things down" in critical situations to help them make the best decision, he said. Getting some officers, particularly those who have been on the force for years, to embrace the new philosophy has been difficult at times, he admitted, given their natural reluctance to back down.

Minneapolis, like other major police departments across the country, has embraced the "sanctity of life" principles put forth by the Police Executive Research Forum, Schoenberger said. The Washington, D.C.-based think tank concluded that "the sanctity of human life should be at the heart of everything an agency does."

Schoenberger said the police group also has stressed the importance of improving communication between officers and suspects, drawing on lessons from police in the United Kingdom, who are seldom armed.

Chief Janeé Harteau declined to comment. A departmental probe will determine whether the officers in the Clark case violated any internal policies, and a separate Justice Department investigation is underway.

De-escalation draws praise

So far, the Minneapolis department has instituted 19 of the 30 recommendations made in the police research forum's recent report. They include using more scenario-based training to teach officers how to effectively de-escalate a situation. Some of the use-of-force guidelines already are woven into the department's ongoing crisis intervention training, officials say.

Minneapolis officers are undergoing a form of de-escalation training and 500 patrol officers are going through a 40-hour crisis intervention training. This is in addition to ongoing procedural justice training and implicit bias training that is part of a federal program. The training has been disparaged by some officers, who say that the curriculum was developed by administrators who are disconnected from day-to-day patrol realities after years away from the street.

Similar reforms have been tried here before.

A commitment to de-escalation was among the recommendations made by the Chief's Citizens Council in a 2013 report. In an examination last year of the department's tactics, the American Civil Liberties Union insisted that better police-community relations starts with improvements to police practices.

Department policy allows officers to employ force if they feel their own life or the lives of their partner or the public are threatened. But they're encouraged to employ other options when time and safety permit.

Other major departments, like Seattle, which drew praise from the White House for its de-escalation training, have gone a step further and required their officers to first try to de-escalate a situation, as long as no imminent threat exists.

In Kansas City, police are being instructed in tactical disengagement, while Los Angeles police officers are receiving "preservation of life" training.

Police in San Diego, where Ringgenberg worked for four years, are given "emotional intelligence training," where they're taught to keep their emotions in check and not take it personally if someone speaks to them disrespectfully. Officers there are allowed to use takedowns when a suspect displays "active resistance" or refuses to comply while conveying a threat to the officer or another person.

Freeman has said Ringgenberg's technique was "not favored" by Minneapolis police, but wouldn't say the officers' actions caused the deadly outcome.

In clearing them, he pointed to forensic evidence that backed their account that Clark was not handcuffed and had his hand on Ringgenberg's gun when he was shot. Schwarze, the prosecutor said, fired a shot into Clark's head after Clark continued struggling with the other officer despite repeated warnings to stop.

"If he held out his hands and said, 'handcuff me,' he'd be alive today," Freeman said.

Ringgenberg told Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators after the Clark shooting that he was taught in San Diego to take anyone who resists to the ground.

"It's safer for everybody. It's easier … to gain control and place them in handcuffs," he said, according to transcripts. "It's harder to get leverage when people are standing up."

"Alright, so you, with your training and experience, taking him to the ground makes it safer for everybody and easier to get him cuffed?" BCA special agent Michael Phill asked.

"Yes," Ringgenberg said.

"However it didn't work out that way, right?" Phill countered.

"No," the officer replied.

Libor Jany • 612-673-4064 Twitter:@StribJany