Company hired to analyze fatal police shootings accused of ‘pseudoscience’

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — The Chesterfield County Police Department hired an outside firm that advises law enforcement on use-of-force issues to investigate and analyze the fatal police shooting of Charles Byers in 2023. But the decision to hire Force Science raised concerns among the Byers family, as the firm has previously been criticized for alleged bias against police.

Peggy and Michael Byers will soon have to spend a year without their adult son Charles.

On July 8, 2023, a Chesterfield police officer shot and killed Charles Byers after two officers responded to a burglary report and found Byers carrying an axe.

“Every time the seasons change, it makes me so sad that time passes and he is no longer with us,” Peggy Byers said.

It is now known that Byers was in a mental health crisis. At the time of his death, he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital by court order because he was no longer able to care for himself.

“We’re not dealing with a criminal here. We’re dealing with someone who is in distress and we should take a little more time and be a little more cautious to try to de-escalate the situation,” said Michael Byers.

CBS 6 was the first to receive the bodycam footage, nearly a year after the shooting.

Watch: CBS 6 receives bodycam footage

Bodycam footage of Charles Byers

The video showed Byers backing away from police officers while holding a hatchet next to him and ignoring numerous requests to drop it.

When Byers backed away from the police after 45 seconds, a police officer shot him five times.

Then Byers turned around and the officer shot him twice more in the back.

Prosecutor Erin Barr justified the officers’ actions, saying she had concluded that they had a legitimate fear for their safety and that of neighbors who might have encountered Byers.

In reviewing her case, Barr considered the opinions and findings of an outside firm as part of the files provided to her by the police department.

CBS 6 confirmed through a public records request that Chesterfield Police paid Force Science at least $12,500 and Force Science provided an 82-page analysis and report on the Byers shooting. The department sent Force Science a $10,000 payment in November 2023 and another $2,500 payment in January 2024.

But police have decided to withhold that report and will not release their contracts with the company because those documents are criminal investigation files. The Virginia Freedom of Information Act gives law enforcement the ability to withhold documents that are part of a closed investigation.

Force Science was founded by Dr. Bill Lewinski.

According to its website, the company provides research, training and consulting on human performance and police use of force.

Lewinski has testified as an expert in trials across the country and has been interviewed by numerous media outlets over the years, including CBS and the Associated Press.

“We do so little and expect so much, and if the officer fails, it’s on him. We have to change our behavior to meet the expectations that society has of that officer,” Lewinski told the Associated Press in 2020.

Watch: Police withdraw offer to provide access to video of officer shooting Charles Byers

Chesterfield police withdraw offer to provide access to video of police shooting of Charles Byers

Some of Lewinski’s research can be found on the FBI website, including a 2010 article on the risks of rescuing a downed police officer.

But Force Science has its critics.

“It’s just a way to find a reason to justify the officer’s actions,” Peggy Byers said.

Some experts take a similar position.

“Use-of-force science seems to be based solely on the premise that no matter what the officer did, it was the right thing,” says Dr. Will Pelfrey, a criminal justice professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who has worked with the U.S. Department of Justice on use-of-force guidelines.

Pelfrey reviewed Force Science’s research, including an unpublished paper by Lewinski on why police officers may reasonably shoot suspects in the back. The study measured how quickly subjects performed commanded movements in 11 different scenarios.

“I think a lot of what they do is pseudoscience,” Pelfrey said. “They take things that look scientific and then do training or peer review on those things.”

Pelfrey said the company bases its research on real science: reaction time, visual acuity and human perception, for example. But critics argue that the way Force Science applies these concepts in police work goes too far.

“The extent to which Lewinski and others are making very, very firm claims about what this officer definitely saw or could not have done or did for ‘X’ reasons is simply not supported by the research, even the material that is published in peer-reviewed journals,” said Dr. Michael Sierra-Arévalo, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of The Danger Imperative.

Some judges across the country have excluded testimony from Lewinski and Force Science instructors in court cases.

A federal judge in California wrote in 2023 that force science “is widely viewed as a purveyor of unreliable pseudoscientific analyses used to justify the use of force by officers, and its studies … enjoy little or no acceptance within the relevant scientific community.”

Lewinski defends his credibility.

In response to an interview request from CBS 6, Lewinski responded in an email: “I have a doctorate from a fully accredited university, otherwise I would never have been able to work for 28 years as a tenured professor at a major university in Minnesota. I also served as director of a fully integrated law enforcement program, the largest in the Midwest. I also served as chairman of the Department of Public Administration.”

Watch: Chesterfield’s top prosecutor explains reasons behind fatal shooting of Charles Byers

Chesterfield’s top prosecutor explains the reasons behind the fatal shooting of Charles Byers

He added that Force Science has produced more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific studies and its research staff have collectively authored over 1,000 publications.

Nevertheless, Lewinski is accused of bias against the police.

“He’s an industry-trained expert who, no matter what you do, always comes and says, ‘It was fine,'” said attorney Randi McGinn.

McGinn was a special prosecutor in a police shooting case in New Mexico. She questioned Lewinski in 2015 when he testified on behalf of the defense.

She convinced the judge to reject most of Lewinski’s statements.

Here is an excerpt from the cross-examination:

“Since 2003, you have only testified in favor of police officers in criminal trials before secret grand juries and in civil cases,” McGinn said. “We have been asked to present our research for police officers, yes, that is correct,” Lewinski replied. “You have never testified in favor of a citizen who has been shot, killed or injured by police since 2003, have you?” McGinn asked. “We have never been asked, so the answer is no,” Lewinski said.

CBS 6 asked Lewinski if he could give an example where force science concluded that an officer’s use of force was inappropriate. He did not answer the question directly, but said, “Lawyers do everything they can to influence current and future cases, even twisting facts if it suits their purposes.”

The Byers family said they questioned Force Science’s publicly shielded opinions on their son’s shooting.

“I have no confidence in this company and am truly disappointed that Chesterfield County is wasting our tax money on its services,” said Michael Byers.

Chesterfield police declined to be interviewed to discuss their decision to hire Force Science.

CBS 6 confirmed through a public records request that the department continued to work with the organization even after the Byers investigation was completed.

In April, the Chesterfield Police Department hosted the company for a training session on “Use of Force and the Impact of Human Factors on Critical Incidents.”

An agreement signed in September 2023 shows that the department paid $7,900 for at least 20 people to participate.

CBS 6 asked other local law enforcement agencies if they have ever worked with Force Science.

Richmond Police, Henrico Police and the Hanover Sheriff’s Office said at least some of their officers have received Force Science training in recent years.

However, no one has yet hired the company to analyze an officer’s operational forces or to provide testimony in a court case.