Shoot first and answer questions two days later

The Evansville, Indiana Police Department is quick to shoot but slow to answer questions. It was reported on April 5 that a person was shot by police but the public was not told the name of either the shooting victim or the cop until Monday April 8 when the department announced it had exonerated the officer. Taking its cue from the Obama Justice Department the local police department cited "an ongoing investigation" as the need to keep public information from the public. Details of the incident reported in the local media only differ on one account. One version maintains the victim was laying face down when he was shot and the other reports he was lying on his back. In any event the officer perceived he was trying to reach into his pocket so he shot him in the stomach.
As to the prolonged media blackout, that was explained away by Sgt. Jason Cullum who explained under departmental policy the officer could not be questioned until 2 days after the shooting presumably to give him time to lawyer up and get his story straight. "The officer involved has also not given a formal statement, as police department rules require officers involved in shootings to take a minimum of two days to “decompress” before issuing a formal statement, Cullum said.'"
Yes, decompression is essential to any thoughtful investigation as contemporaneous explanations can result in possible incrimination. It's not clear that any private citizen who has been involved in a crime or serious accident has ever been accorded 2 days to decompress but evidently rank has its privileges.
As if the above details are not bad enough there is another aspect that invites even more cynicism. The officer, now identified as Patrolman Ryan Winters, was wearing a body cam that supposedly he neglected to turn on. The city of Evansville recently spent $190,000 to outfit its police force with FirstVu HD body cams from Digital Ally. Conveniently the use policy allows the officer to turn the cam on when it redounds to his advantage. Supposedly officers will be using the cameras when they are performing official police functions. That includes self-initiated activities and dispatched runs but in this case the office forgot to turn his cam on.

Following the EVPD's line of thinking one should only turn on his surveillance cameras when burglars are in the building. One can understand that cops do not want to be photographed spending hours drinking coffee or hooking up with barmaids but the body cams were purchased at the department's request and with public money. If the public is ever to have any confidence that the money was well spent it must demand tamper proof body cams that cannot be controlled by the officer.