Use of Deadly Force

Part I: Use of Deadly Force

Interview: Brian Davis

Senior DA Investigator

Sonoma County (CA) District Attorney’s Office

Every police officer plans for that moment of truth—shoot, don’t shoot. That point in time when they must decide in a split-second whether to take a life. 


Preparation for this agonizing decision begins in the academy for most officers. They learn how to use deadly weapons without hesitation while learning about legal and moral consequences when these weapons are used. Survival is hammered into them.

In that one fraction of a second their whole life may flash before their eyes. Officers may hesitate for a fatal second as everything they’ve been taught crashes down upon them. They know their world will go up in flames if they are wrong—loss of job, civil suits that may drag on for years, psychological damage that may tear apart their own family, and criminal charges. Many officers walk away from the job regardless of the outcome within five years.

And if they hesitate—death.

A use of deadly force investigation is one of the toughest cases for investigators to handle. The community expects justice, administrators expect the case to be expeditiously processed, and loved ones of the deceased often want their pound of flesh. The spotlight falls on both those who used deadly force and those charged with investigating the incident.

Today, we’ll learn from a man who has been caught in this unforgiving spotlight a number of times. Brian Davis is currently an investigator for the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office in California, after nearly thirty years with the Santa Rosa  Police Department. Brian brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to this explosive issue.

MARK: Brian, tell us a little about your background, focusing on your investigative experience involving violence crimes and officer-involved incidences. What variety of situations have you been called to investigate or supervise?

BRIAN: I spent nearly 30 years with the Santa Rosa Police Department and retired four years ago at the rank of Lieutenant. I was fortunate to receive extensive training in homicide, sexual assault, child molestation and other violent crimes prior to the serious budget problems that now face California. After my first seven years as a patrol officer (including assignments in traffic and hostage negotiation) I became a detective handling all types of violent crimes. Not only was I fortunate to have great training opportunities, I had a very demanding supervisor who himself had been a very accomplished detective. I learned a great deal about being a good detective, and later modeled myself after him as a supervisor.

At the time I was a detective, our department handled officer-involved shootings in-house. In other words, we did not have another agency come in and do those investigations as is the case in many agencies today. I seemed to always be on-call when one of these things happened and I felt a deep sense of personal and professional responsibility to do the most thorough and objective job possible on those cases. 

After five years as a violent crimes detective, I promoted to Sergeant and became one of the Field Training supervisors as well as running a patrol team. After a quick three years, I was assigned to supervise the Violent Crimes Unit (VCU) becoming one of the youngest Sergeants to do so. I enjoyed taking on the role of the Sergeant I had so much admired when I was a detective by mentoring detectives and demanding more out of them than they thought was in them. By now, the officer-involved shooting policies in the county had changed so that an outside agency would be brought in to do the investigation.  

After six years as the VCU supervisor, it was time to rotate out to patrol. I felt like I was pretty much done with Violent Crimes investigations but the Deputy Chief reassigned me as VCU's supervisor for a second tour of duty. I’m glad I did because I got to work with yet another group of highly motivated people that impressed me, my bosses, and most of all, did a great job putting together cases on the worst violent offenders in the community.   

I promoted out of Violent Crimes to Lieutenant, which gave me some other interesting opportunities, like managing our canine program. But it was the end to being the hands on law enforcement officer that I had enjoyed so much.

When I retired from the Police Department, I came over to the District Attorney’s office and worked as a District Attorney Investigator. After about a year, I was promoted to Senior DA Investigator (sort of like a Sergeant) so I guess I am starting the cycle all over again. DA Investigators work with other law enforcement agencies on homicides, officer involved incidents, and other major investigations. We are full time peace officers with subpoena powers and have the ability to conduct independent investigations such as in matters of political corruption.