Beacon PD History of Use Of Force and De-Escalation Techniques
Police departments change over time with different leaders and officers. In 2010, the Beacon Police Department emerged from a federal investigation, where it was concluded that: “Today’s agreement concludes the investigation without any finding that the BPD violated the law, but implements a series of reforms and improvements designed to improve the operation of the BPD. On June 21, 2005, and Nov. 14, 2008, the department’s Civil Rights Division Special Litigation Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued technical assistance letters to the BPD. The agreement, signed today by the department, implements those recommendations.”
Some of those recommendations included “use of force policy to emphasize verbal de-escalation techniques,” among other reforms. In 2018, officers began wearing body cameras under Chief Kevin Junjulas. Chief Figlia was a Lieutenant at that time, and was in charge of the program. Then Chief Junjulas said that the cameras are a “good tool for internal investigations, to determine what actually happened. The video is right there.”
In April 2024, Beacon Police responded to a call about a man threatening to shoot a couple near Peaceful Provisions donut shop when they asked him not to touch their dog during morning coffee. That individual continued walking down the sidewalk and was apprehended several blocks down at the car wash, where he was taken to the ground by Beacon PD. A rifle was used, and an officer knelt down to put his hand on the man’s head to keep him down. ALBB reported on this incident and had video footage of that as well, which was published.
Chief Figlia, who was a Lieutenant at the time, eagerly called ALBB for a copy of the video that he could use in his use-of-force training, since the officers carried through the action within their training.
The Beacon Police can use cameras on Main Street to roll back within that moment to see if the alleged exposure happened. The Beacon Police have not commented to say if their cameras picked the alleged first buttocks exposure. A civilian video did, however, capture at least a second indecent exposure by the mooner. It is this video footage of an intended exposing action that is being questioned by some in the public. Not any Disorderly Conduct the Beacon Police allege all three individuals were doing. This is a separate violation that was captured and published on video.
The Information Release
The following is the Information Release published on Facebook by Beacon’s Chief Figlia.
On August 28, 2026, at approximately 3:40pm the Beacon Police Department received a call for an unknown problem at the county building at 223 Main St. While we usually do not do releases about violation level incidents, this one has apparently caused concerns of favoritism or police inaction among some members of our community.
On that day, upon their arrival officers found three subjects, all of whom they were familiar with from multiple interactions, yelling on the street. One was wearing a pale pink Spirit of Beacon Day t-shirt, one was wearing a blue t-shirt and one was wearing a darker pink t-shirt. They were also approached by security from the county building and were advised that the individual in the pale pink Spirit of Beacon Day t-shirt caused a disturbance inside and was not allowed to return inside the building at that time.
When the officers arrived all three individuals were legally committing the act of Disorderly Conduct, a violation level offense, by yelling, cursing and causing alarm for other people in a public area. One subject was alleged to have exposed his buttocks at another, which constitute Exposure of a Person, also a violation level offense. One subject was visibly intoxicated and stated he had consumed "a couple of beers" and another was expressing emotional concerns over a recent death in the family.
Though all three individuals could have legally been charged with violation level offenses that carry similar consequences to a traffic ticket, officers determined that given the totality of the circumstances, the best course of action was advise the one subject not to return to the county building at that time, and to employ de-escalation techniques to calm and separate the involved parties, which they successfully did.
When feasible and safe, the Beacon Police Department routinely attempts to employ de-escalation techniques rather than immediate arrests for low level offenses and people in crisis across the spectrum of society. Despite widespread public calls for just this course of action, the untrained public often reacts negatively when they actually see it in practice and mistakes it for favoritism.
When it can be safely employed, de-escalation techniques usually involve things such as reinforcing that the officers are there to help the person, lowering voices, validating feelings, using the involved individual's name and attempting to create unity between the officer and the person in need of de-escalation, all of which were done in this incident. That does not mean that the officers favor one person or another, or approve of that individual's behavior. Rather it likely means that they attempting to use best practices to de-escalate a non-violent incident, where there does not appear to be an imminent danger to anyone, involving a low-level offense such as the incident above.
Signed,
Thomas Figlia
Chief of Police
