KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
kpd_pletnikoff_news_release_21_sept_2015
Jay Barrett/KMXT
Late in the business day on Monday the Kodiak Police Department faxed a brief statement to the press in response to allegations of use of excessive force in the case of Nick Pletnikoff. He is the autistic young Kodiak man who last Wednesday was pinned to the ground by three officers and pepper sprayed while handcuffed.
Distributed around 5 p.m. Monday evening, the statement was ostensibly from the chief of police, though Ronda Wallace’s name was not on it. Kodiak City Manager Aimee Kniaziowski told KMXT the announcement was faxed from her office in city hall, rather than being e-mailed from the police station, as most announcements from the KPD are. It was not posted to Nixle, the city’s public mass e-mailing service.
The statement says “no specific facts will be released at this time,” but that the department has already conducted its initial review and it had found the three officers involved acted professionally.
The statement goes on to say that the three officers, who were not named, were not quick in the use of force against Pletnikoff, but when they did, it was “minimal and necessary” to keep the officers and the community safe from him.
The short statement, though it sheds no new light on the incident, closes with an acknowledgment of “the importance of an open and transparent dialogue with the community,” and says it will provide “more specific details after completing a more thorough review of the incident.”
KMXT has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city to obtain audio and video recordings made by the officer’s body recorders and dash cams, which are classified as public records under state law.
