CONSIDER NEW RULES FOR POLICE ENTRIES

There's no question that the shootout in which Detective Sherry
Lyons-Williams and suspected drug dealer Michael Thompson were killed and
her partner, Thaddeus "T.J." Chambers, was wounded will be investigated by
the Police Department. That's standard procedure when an Atlanta officer
shoots someone in the line of duty.

But the official review ought not be limited to the usual question of
whether the use of deadly force was justified. From all accounts, Thompson
fired first at Lyons-Williams and Chambers, killing her and wounding him;
then Chambers fired back -- clearly and reasonably in self-defense.

So the correctness of Chambers' response seems a foregone conclusion. But
there are other questions that should be pondered:

Should the police consider more cautious procedures for forced entries into
residences of suspected felons? This query is not intended to find fault
with Lyons-Williams and Chambers, both veteran officers acting by the book.
The question is whether the book itself needs revisions, however slight.

For instance, would it be wiser to send in a trained dog to locate and even
subdue the object of a police raid, as forces in other cities have begun to
do? (This is not a foolproof method, as shown by an incident in
Jacksonville this week where a police dog mauled a 10-year-old girl in her
home. However, the fault there appears to lie more with the security firm
that sent police to a wrong address than with the dog and its handler.)

There's also the question of body armor. Lyons-Williams was shot in the
chest through a gap at the side over her protective vest, a vulnerability
that may spur other officers to consider a heavier model that covers more
of the torso. Paradoxically, she thought the model she wore was safer
because it afforded her more maneuverability. For officers who put
themselves in harm's way, this will continue to be a difficult choice until
lighter, more flexible body armor is perfected.

Finally, there's a contributing factor here that is not a police matter,
but one for the building department. Thompson lived in a single-family home
that had been turned into an 11-unit boardinghouse -- in violation of city
building codes. The house should have been ordered vacated by the city long
ago, but the city only gave the order this week.

Conversions like these are a pox on the city and all too often become
hangouts for drug dealers. If City Hall devoted more effort to enforcing
housing and zoning regulations, confrontations such as the one that took
the life of Lyons-Williams could well be minimized.