No criminal charges will be filed against Quakertown police officers or its chief for their response to a student-led ICE protest turned violent earlier this year, but the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said it identified "serious issues" that should be addressed with the department.
The 20-page report, which took six months to complete, was also critical of the conduct of Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree, 72, whose decision to charge into a group of protesters investigators led to the physical confrontations that left McElree and two other officers injured.
While McElree had the legal authority to use the force he employed, his "ill-advised decision to do so" was the catalyst which led to violence outside of Sunday's Deli," the report said.
"Given the availability of subordinate officers who were in uniform and wearing body cameras, there was no reason for the chief of police to engage high school students in an uncontrolled and emotionally charged environment —especially when he had neither a uniform nor a body camera," the DA concluded.
The much anticipated report which included interviews with two dozen witnesses was released quietly Aug. 3, also revealed that District Attorney Joe Khan declined to prosecute additional juveniles Quakertown police sought to have charged for their alleged participation in the attack on McElree.
Five students were charged as juveniles in the melee, which began after about 40 students walked off the nearby Quakertown Community High School campus when a planned ICE demonstration was canceled at the last minute because of threats of violence.
The student defendants — known as the "Quakertown 5"—alleged they were acting in self-defense when McElree, who was in plain clothes and allegedly did not identify himself as law enforcement, charged into a group of protesters to detain one. Four of the five were also injured in the police confrontation, the investigation said.
They were each placed in a trial diversion program and their records will be expunged once they complete their probation. Four of the five defendants later spoke with Bucks County Detectives as part of the independent DA investigation.
While the DA was critical of McElree's "calamitous decision" to enter a crowd of agitated teenagers, the investigation found no evidence of excessive force or a crime.
"Based on an exhaustive review of video and eyewitness evidence and a rigorous application of Pennsylvania law, the office found no basis for a criminal prosecution of any police officers, including Police Chief McElree, whose use of force against juveniles received heavy scrutiny," the DA's office said in its memorandum.
The DA investigation also found Quakertown police remains one of the only Bucks County police departments that has failed to update its departmental policies to reflect the Police Chief's Best Practice Standards, guidelines that law enforcement agreed to adopt in 2020, following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Among those 15 standards is one that bars the use of techniques intended to cutoff the flow of oxygen when restraining a suspect. Khan recommended McElree immediately provide him a timeline for adopting the guidelines.
"This decision created a 'fog of war' where students — believing that an unidentified vigilante was attacking them —acted to defend themselves or others, while police officers — seeing McElree attacked — acted lawfully to stop and arrest people who were assaulting a police officer," the report found.
The investigation found that while most students protested lawfully, "some broke the law," and while most protestors and witnesses didn't know McElree was a police officer, a few students assaulted uniformed officers and McElree "after it should have become evident that he was with the QPD," the DA's office said.
Key law enforcement personnel, including McElree, were not wearing body-worn cameras during the incident, requiring investigators to track down, recover and authenticate civilian protester and bystander videos, the last of which were obtained in July, the report said.
An "independent" use-of-force expert with no ties to the investigation was hire to evaluate McElree's conduct and his report was submitted on Aug. 2, the DA's office said.
The expert, Steve Nolan, a retired Philadelphia Police Internal Affairs investigator, concluded that McElree's placement of his arm around a juvenile's neck did not violate any Quakertown Police policy on force or any Pennsylvania law because the maneuver did not restrict ab airway or vascular flow.
"Applying the U.S. Supreme Court standard and Pennsylvania's Peace Officer Justification defense, the Quakertown report stated that Chief McElree cannot be prosecuted for his use of force because the Commonwealth would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that McElree believed his physical actions were necessary to effect an arrest or defend himself while being struck," the DA's office said.
The DA review also found no evidence supporting allegations that McElree may have acted as a counterprotester or attempted to stop the protest from taking place.
The incident generated weeks of protests throughout Quakertown including school board and council meetings and calls for McElree to step down from his positions as chief and borough manager that left deep divisions within the town.
McElree's supporters defended his actions including the borough council, who announced in May it would not discipline McElree or other officers for their actions and praised the officers' restraint and professionalism in dealing with the protesters.
The Bucks County Police Chiefs' Association report also released a report that found police and McElree acted properly and with restraint. "Quakertown 5" supporters called the police-chief led review misleading and one-sided.
This is a developing story back back for updates
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County DA: Quakertown chief won't be charged in ICE protest melee